Rick6a

Rick6a

Well Known Member
Rarely do I recommend a link on a forum such as this, but this site is in a class all its own. If you have a decent computer and high speed connection, download the app. for http://earth.google.com Be sure to check the airport/transportation box. I suspect the resolution is made intentionally blurry when zooming in very close but still clear enough to recognize both my current vehicles in the driveway. :eek:

Rick Galati RV-6A "Darla"
 
I was just looking at Google Earth myself while waiting on some paint to dry (6 month old puppy - don't ask). The resolution on Google Earth is driven by the resolution of the satellite which photographed a certain area. For instance, if you look at Atlanta, and specifically Georgia Tech, you can see individual pedestrians on campus and can even recognize the make/model of certain vehicles.

If you look closely, you can even see the "splice lines" where different photos come together to form the whole enchilada. It is very obvious where the sharp (high magnification?) images were taken and where they adjoin lower areas photographed under lower resolution.

Interestingly, if you look near the major airports (e.g. Hartsfield, O'Hare, etc) you'll be able to see multiple aircraft taking off or landing.

This is a very impressive free piece of software.

KB
 
What is amazing about this software is that you can set the altitude and rotate the angle of the picture so you can "fly" into any airport before you really fly there. I will use it to familiarize myself with an unknown airport and the area around it. Combine this with Microsoft flight sim and you know exactly where you are flying and what it will look like from the air before you ever get there.
 
Why are the images so blurry on my computer? I have Dell computer that is only about a year old. You can't make out any detail except for airports and cities. You have to be at an altitude of about 10 miles before things don't look blurry.

UPDATE:
I zoomed in on Kansas City and the detail is much better. It seems there is not high resolution pictures of small towns and rural areas. I searched for my zip code (72601) and the detail is very poor.


Thanks
 
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Google Earth Addons

If you like Google Earth, you've got to try these addons......

http://www.fboweb.com/antest/ge/intro.aspx

LAX, BOS, ORD, ATL and JFK Inbound Traffic
US Airspace Polgygons (3D representations of Special Use Airspace)
US Sectional Charts
LAX Center Frequency Map

Really cools stuff, but I wouldn't advise it without a good broadband connection!

--Michael
 
rv9aviator said:
Why are the images so blurry on my computer? I have Dell computer that is only about a year old. You can't make out any detail except for airports and cities. You have to be at an altitude of about 10 miles before things don't look blurry.

UPDATE:
I zoomed in on Kansas City and the detail is much better. It seems there is not high resolution pictures of small towns and rural areas. I searched for my zip code (72601) and the detail is very poor.


Thanks
Click to expand...
Good day,

We use a lot of satellite imagery like this in my group at work to build visual databases for simulators. You can get low resolution images of most of the western world for free somewhere on the internet, generally at a pixel resolution of 30 meters or bigger. That means that each pixel on your screen represents 30 meters (a little more than 30 yards). Some imagery is 100 meters or more. This makes for a really mushy image, unless your viewpoint is like 20,000 feet or more.

The detailed images you see of cities, airports, campuses, etc are generally 1 meter or better. The issue is that all of this data is very expensive to acquire, and thus high resolution images are normally only taken of points of interest (i.e. airports). Normally, in my business, you have to pay to get the high resolution images, and that can run in the $1-$2K range for EACH image. Where Google gets their images, I don't know, but it is cool that you can get some very high resultion stuff there.

Just to ensure that guys like me don't use these images for commercial purposes , if you look close at the screen you'll see "Google 2005" or something as a watermark throughout the image.

So, just to make this incredibly long story short, your Dell computer has nothing to do with it. It is displaying the images just fine. It is just that the majority of the world imagery (on Google) is only available in low resolution.

I'm done, now. No, really.... ;-)
 
Resolution

Try the local mapping services of your county.
Pima County in AZ has pretty high resolution photos on-line as part of it's GIS mapping software. The b/w resolution in one set is good enough to see the pool cleaner and hose in our pool!

gil in Tucson
 
I'm using Mozilla's FireFox browser. When I click on one of the features, it presents me with two options, Save to Disk or Open with Google Earth.kmlfile. If I chose Open, it launches Google Earth and the the "feature" works. I just tried it the the ATL (Atlanta,GA) file and it worked fine.

See if that helps.

--Michael
 
Google goofs up

I also can not get the google earth to work, when it gets too "low" to the ground, the imiage breaks into something like "Tiles" (as in how you can set up the desktop), and then it gets worse as it zooms in----------kinda looks like different "layers" of the composit photo are comming apart, and moving around. even the line of script with the address goes screwy.

I also am using Firefox------------any of you tech types out there have any idea what is going on???

Mike
 
google image not clear

There is mass data, look on the screen towards the bottom where it says "streaming". Even with cable broad band it takes some time for the image to clear up. G
 
Streaming

Yep, I have seen that, and the imiage doesn't clean up even when the streaming indicator hits 100%-----------still looks like something seen through a fly's eye------multiple repeted imiages, mixed with "layers that dont stack correctly.

Thanks for the answer though.

Mike
 
I used Google earth to plan my trip through the Rockies this past summer. It was pretty doggone close to what I saw out the window on the actual trip. Great program!
 
I used to think Google Earth was cool until...

..I was turned onto Microsoft's counter attack to Google Earth.

http://local.live.com

This may not work well unless you look at a populated area, but zoom in, then hit 'birds eye' view.

Imagine looking out your window as you fly over at 300 feet...this is what comes over the net...a real image, approx 45 degreee down view.

Address resolution & panning still need work, but the imagery is superior! I got a view of my house from 4 angles, from approx 300 feet- just as good as if the photo had been snapped from the window of my plane.
 
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Hmmm... don't see bird's eye view. Where do you find that. I've zoomed in all the way. Thought it was my area so I zoomed in on San Franscisco. Still can't find the button you referenced.
 
Fixed link above. Sorry about that.

You won't get the birds eye view option unless imagery is available. You may have to first click on the aerial view. If you see an icon that looks like a building, click that- that is the bird's eye view.

Try zooming in to the Atlanta area...for example, PDK airport is just NE of the city, inside the hwy 285 (the ring around Atlanta).

You can practically read N Numbers on the planes.

From their help:

Bird's Eye Coverage

We've got high-resolution Bird's Eye imagery for many areas across the United States. The following list shows some of the major metropolitan areas. It's not a complete list?we have more locations than we can fit on this page!

*

New York City, NY
*

San Francisco, CA
*

Boston, MA
*

Los Angeles, CA
*

Washington, DC
*

Seattle, WA
*

Philadelphia, PA
*

Las Vegas, NV
*

Atlanta, GA
*

Albuquerque, NM
*

Indianapolis, IN
*

Lexington, KY

Keep an eye on this page for updates as they come in!
 
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