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Mystery Blogger Comes Clean
5 comments | 16 hours ago
Are Google Earth Images In Real-Time?
By Mike Sachoff - Fri, 02/08/2008 - 15:07
A look at Google Earth images
Images on Google Earth are highly detailed but do not show imagery in real-time.
Many people according to Frank Taylor at his Google Earth Blog believe the images are in real time. He believes that is because of weather satellite photos that are a few hours old or because of live weather radar. He goes into detail how Google collects its images for Google Earth.
Taylor writes, "High resolution satellites (like those operated by DigitalGlobe) operate just a few hundred kilometers above the Earth. This means they only see a small part of the Earth with their camera as they orbit over."
"They typically go around the Earth every 90 minutes, but only cover about 1% of the Earth on each pass (you can see strips of imagery if you look at the imagery in Google Earth) - most of that is water."
One reason why the images are not in real time is that they must be processed by a commercial provider like DigitalGlobe before being passed on to Google. Goggle then compares the imagery to the current imagery to see if the new imagery is better than the current.
Taylor writes," Once an image is selected, it has to be processed into the format and coordinate system of Google Earth's databases. Then it has to go through a quality control process and fed into a processing system before it gets distributed to the live Google Earth database servers."
Another reason there is not newer imagery according to Taylor is that it is expensive to purchase quality aerial imagery. Taylor points out that recent imagery is worth more than older imagery and companies do not want to have their newest imagery available for free on Google Earth. He says you cannot sell or use the imagery from Google Earth for business purposes without permission.
There is near real- time imagery of Earth available on Google Earth. Taylor writes," first there's the new Clouds layer. Found under the new Weather layer folder. The clouds are actually taken from weather satellites and are a global picture of the clouds as recent as 3 hours old."
He also points to NASA. "NASA has a layer they call DailyPlanet which shows the entire Earth at a medium resolution (about 500 meter resolution per pixel). You can view DailyPlanet in Google Earth."
"Right now, this layer from NASA is the most recent, highest resolution imagery of the Earth continuously updating available to the general public."
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58 Comments
About the nasa layer
How can i view the nasa layer in the google earth, that is stated on the body of the text above? And does it say how old is the picture?
Thanx
Hmmm...
To those complaining about how "not fast enough" Google is updating its database, don't forget that:
1- it's free! Take it or leave it! They've updated my parent's house twice in the past 5 years, and the picture of my house is 2 years old (well, there was no house back then but my neighbours' was built).
2- Don't forget, you need the satellite to have a very clear picture, that means no clouds on your specific spot, and on a bright and sunny day.
3- If, like the article said, the company taking the picture won't release them to Google and others, what can Google do? Not much except waiting.
4- GoogleEarth is more like a cool feature, a toy, not a professional application. If you have needs that require an always up-to-date picture, you can always start paying. I'm sure that no matter how rich Google is, they can't afford to buy pictures every year for the entire planet!
5- Many parts of the world are not yet covered by high definitions pictures. Adding a city instead of updating one makes more business sense for Google.
Does anyone understand the
Does anyone understand the national security risk of having a widely available real time imaging program. Sorry folks, you need NSA clearance to see actual photos in real time. I live in a big, very-well populated city and the pistures I get are at least 2-3 years old. If you think you are seeing up to date pictures, you need to change some things up because you are becoming the very definition of plane-jane. It's not that the images are up to date, its that you haven't changed anything for so long old pics just look new.
Yeah here too 3 years old
Yeah here too 3 years old pictures at least
Pitty i'd love to take a look on the roads to see if its buisy
But nasty too if you say your not at a friend
And your gf can see your car parked in front of a friends house haha
satellite photos
does anyone know if there is a technology out there that is capable of archiving its satellite photos of a any given city. for example, if someone wanted to view a specific street on a specific time and date at any point in the past. ie, could i view 5th and broadway, nyc at 1pm on december 10th? is that type of technology available??
Old Google Earth Images
Images are of Nov 2006. How can I see latest images. If not atleast 6 months old. Please do keep updating.
Gearth
If you will notice, there can be no winter images in the northern lattitudes. The reasons are obvious.
Redundant technology
What's the point of all this sophisticated technology and all the hoopla surrounding it when the images are a few years old, and of no use to the general public?? I would have liked to be able to monitor my investment property, for example, by logging on to GE.
How about making GE more functional, Larry and Serge???
If you want to monitor your
If you want to monitor your investment property maybe you should do it yourself. Google Earth is not your personal spy cam, buddy.
images changed?
I viewed GE several a couple years ago....there was my property...so cool! I had a big building constructed recently, and one day I went on GE and saw it! It was very nice to see updated pics! So, I go on GE now, and the OLD IMAGE is back....new building is NOT there! WTF?? Any ideas?
not real time
there is a truck that drives around taking the pics. you can see the shadow on many images
omg, are you all kidding me?
These satellite images couldn't possibly be in real time. The amount of bandwidth and equipment needed to pull something like that off would cost astronomical amounts of money at this point in time! There are only a handful of satellites taking pictures at any given moment in time at any given place on earth. And the process is pretty slow, in fact, there are many many places that still don't have high resolution imagery due to the fact that only so many pictures can be taken in a short amount of time. In the future something like that will be possible, but probably not the near future.
weather radar not updating
Is it possible to update the weather radar manually,it seems mine has been stuck at 5/11 for days?
Yes I see
At least it isn't stuck on 9/11 and thank lord have mercy on us all for that!
Hi Steven, I'm glad to see
Hi Steven, I'm glad to see I'm not the only one facing this issue since exactly the same day. I've been deinstalling reinstalling the damn thing many times and problem hasn't been solved to date. Funningly enough, images are updated normally on my laptop at work, same version, same OS. I'm clueless and it's frustrating. Have you by any chance found a way to get around this? I suspect the cache to be causing something though...
weather radar not updating
Hello Fellow Google Earther,
I also have tried everything,searched high and low,installed and uninstalled ,posted and e-mailed and actually when I looked at the dates on this page I never thought I'd get a reply.No,still haven't found a solution,maybe Weather Channel didn't pay their satellite bill?If I do find something I will post back here.The program has some great features,looking around I found some great add-ons,one was another weather device,lost it when I uninstalled,I think they were at Lifehacker or Google Earth Blog,check them out!
Good Luck ,
Steven
weather radar not updating
Hi Steven,
Thanks for your reply. Actually, I have an interesting update. I brought my laptop home from work to doublecheck whether the problem was with my PC. When I connected the laptop to my modem, GE loaded the exact same old radar image I've been stuck with since 05/11! So the problem isn't with GE itself and it's not with weather.com either since the latest images load perfectly at work. My conclusion (which is not the most pleasant one to be honest) is that there is a cache problem with our respective ISP or with maybe one of weather.com's servers!!! The old image may just be stuck in a cache somewhere. Now, tell me how to solve this unless it just resolves on its own.
Let's keep each other posted ;)
Franck
Weather radar has updated! :)
Hi Steven,
It's me again. You oughta check it out. Mine has just updated. As predicted, problem got solved on its own... for now. Let me know how yours does.
Regards
Franck
Finally
Hi Frank,
I just checked and was so happy to find it had updated,I couldn't wait to get on to tell you-- but you beat me to it!The whole thing is totally amazing and it was a big help to have you post about the same problem,I started to think I was doing something wrong.(but now nosy me would like to know what caused the problem)Now I have to play with the Vista SP1 update and Microsoft,there is so much to learn,maybe old dogs can learn some new tricks?Thanks so much for the help and replies,have a great day,Keep On Googling!
With Thanks,
Sincerely,
Steve
At last
We're all happy bunnies now and can finally concentrate on other things.
Take care
Franck
Just to good to be true :(
Hi Steven,
Unfortunately, I fear that mine has stopped updating since 05/16 23.45 UTC once again. What a pain! Is yours still ok?
Regards,
Franck
Goo Weather
Hi Frank,
Yes ,same problem here ,stuck at 5/16,23.45UTC!I was off line for a while,my brand new Dell with Vista had to be totally Re-Installed(4 hours on the phone),now they tell me it was partly my problem because I tried to Auto Update the SP-1 that they put in Auto Update,well at least it's back up and working again,more than I can say for the Weather Radar!You said something about ISP's ,I'm 20 miles north-west of NYC so I don't know if we have the same server,this is odd because the cloud cover updates continually!Well its not all bad ,I got to meet a thoughtfull and helpfull fellow Googler,keep in touch,any info is appreciated so I don't think its me or my computer,I'm just a novice and trying to learn more by the day!As a matter of fact ,I'm glad the anti-spam Math questions are that simple!
Thanks again,
Have a Great Day,
Steven
I resigned
Hi Steven,
Vista... I'm better off sticking to my "old" XP :). I don't think it's about your computer. Mine just stopped updating overnight, without doing anything unusual! I just think we're two folks out of luck with this stupid radar, one in the US and one in France! I'm just assuming our Internet Service Provider might have a troublesome caching system with this info or we're connected to a lousy server at weather.com. These are assumptions but nothing to help me work it out on my own really... So I just picked another add-on that works just fine. It's available at www.meteox.com. You might just want to get yourself one for the US that runs smoothly as you suggested previously. It's the only satisfactory alternative I've found! Best of luck.
Franck
NOT UPDATED FOR OVER A YEAR!
HEY ALL..
I CHECKED ON MY OLD HOUSE, ONE THAT I MOVED OUT OF OVER A YEAR AGO..AROUND THE CHICAGO AREA, AND IN THE DRIVEWAY WAS STILL MY CAR AND MY DEAD OLD PICK UP TRUCK, STILL COCKED AT THE POSOTION WHERE THE TOW DRIVER PUT IT. THE BIGGEST PROBLEM WITH THAT IS THAT I HAD THAT TRUCK HAULED OFF OVER WELL OVER A YEAR AGO. BEING NEW TO GOOGLE EARTH I HAVE TO ASK WHY THIS IMAGE, IN SUCH A DENSELY POPULATED AREA NO LESS, HAS NOT UPDATED IN SOOOO LONG A TIME FRAME?
ANY IDEAS?
I'm in the UK and my radar
I'm in the UK and my radar images are stuck at th e same time. Anyone from Google Earth listening????
And another one!
Welcome my unlucky Google Earth friend! They've let us down at Googleplex...
IT Updated Again Frank
Hey Frank,
I have been having trouble with Vista and Dell(the problem is fixed I hope and Vista is pretty cool) so I wasn't keeping track of our weather problem,got on tonight and it updated finally!Its like a game now,I log on to Earth just to see if Weather.com is doing their job and then here to see if you are doing yours!France eh,you lucky son of a gun,sample some of those grapes for me!Hello England the problem spreads,so now we have three Google Weather Update Watchers,a new club.I guess its going to be every 3 days or so,hey Google ,if you don't want to get egged like Micro's Balmer,get off of your updaters and keep this thing moving!
Cheers,
Steve
IS THE WEATHER RADAR FIXED???
HI Frank,
We must have ruffled some feathers,the the weather radar is now updating every few hours ,faster then the cloud cover.Maybe we should keep complaining and they will have real-time weather soon!As a matter of fact I looked back at the story for this thread and saw that some people wondered if the regular Google Earth was real time ,like Bush's "Terror" Police would ever allow that?Keep checking ,hope things are OK with you.
Steven
having this radar problem in Germany now
Unfortunately, whatever caused the problem, seems like it has not been resolved yet. I´m now stuck with the same radar images since yesterday morning... I live in Berlin, this is the first time this problem occured. One thing´s for sure: Vista has nothing to do with it, I´m running XP...
Has anyone of you had this problem again since this last discussion back in 2008?
I commented last year and
I commented last year and soon after everything was fixed.
Now neither the clouds or the radar are updating on the screen although in the information details the radar times are up to date and the clouds are stuck days ago!!!!!
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