Bing announced some big upgrades to its Bing Maps imagery today. This includes the addition of new “top of the world” imagery, which includes bathymetry data from Scripps Institution fo Oceanography, as well as over 13 million square kilometers of updated satellite imagery.
“We are pleased to present our new seamless base satellite imagery provided by TerraColor. This imagery has a resolution of 15 meters per pixel, providing coverage of the entire world!” says the Bing Maps team. “This new imagery will enhance overall viewer experience with Bing Maps and the Windows 8 Maps App. Experience it yourself by visiting the Windows 8 Maps App or Bing Maps. The new Top of the World imagery (pictured above) is visible from zoom levels 1-13. Zooming in deeper will reveal our high resolution satellite imagery.”
Of the bathymetric imagery (that’s ocean floor imagery), Bing says, “The topography of the ocean floor is represented by color shading (dark blues to light blues) indicating changes in ocean depth. An ocean mask minimizes areas typically obscured by ice and clouds. The combination of the ocean mask and bathymetric imagery provides a more meaningful view of the world oceans.”
Bing has also been able to reduce cloud cover in cloud-heavy areas in its base satellite layer. That’s in addition to the 13,799,276 square kilometers of new high-res satellite imagery, as well as 203,271 square kilometers of new Global Ortho imagery.
More on all of these updates here.