www.google.earth.com Very good for checking out trails!

[jgw50]

Its a mapping program that meshes detailed satalite imagery with topo map information and lets you "fly" through a 3d environment all over the world. Really detailed in Moab, and Wasatch front. You can see the tire marks all over all the trails in moab. Extremely cool.


Oh, and its FREE

Im not a promoter, but I think its awesome. At first, it doesnt seem all that special, but then you learn how to "fly" using all 3 mouse buttons, and let your internet connection refine the pixels. I can almost count the shingles on my roof! I even saw a herd of deer out behind Farmington Peak. The pictures arent real time, probably about a year old in most places, but really cool for checking out wheeling trails. AF canyon looks real good, as does above the B and such. You can make out the B very easily!


www.earth.google.com

 

[myota]

yeah, a friend showed me google earth the other day. i think i creamed myself...

 

[cruiseroutfit]

There were a couple threads a few months ago... really cool. I have probably spent 20+ hours playing with that it

 

[jgw50]

Yeah, it was described to me as "the cats as$" and I would have to agree.

 

[Rick B]

Yeah, it's really great, unless like me you have one of the video cards that Google Earth doesn't support. It only took me a month to figure that out, it's buried way down in their help info.

 

[great scott]

I have used it, but I am getting no were near that clear of pics here in utah. Am I doing somthing wrong.

 

[Pathos]

I prefer NASA WorldWind which is 100% free and provides access to imaging from LandSat7 (visible & pseudo color), USGS (1m, ortho & topo), MODIS, and coming on Oct 20th the updated bluemarble sets. Being opensource others have added functionality to it like NEXRAD and global visible / IR overlays for weather etc... The only thing it is mising that google earth provides is the street overlays and address lookups which I find easier to get thru http://maps.google.com anyway.

 

[Kris K]

HOw do you get into the NASA one???

 

[Pathos]

CLICK ME -- pick a mirror and download it

you might need THIS from MS aswell. (.net runtime fluff)

 

[Meat_]

I prefer NASA WorldWind which is 100% free and provides access to imaging from LandSat7 (visible & pseudo color), USGS (1m, ortho & topo), MODIS, and coming on Oct 20th the updated bluemarble sets. Being opensource others have added functionality to it like NEXRAD and global visible / IR overlays for weather etc... The only thing it is mising that google earth provides is the street overlays and address lookups which I find easier to get thru http://maps.google.com anyway.

It's pretty cool, still has rough edges though. GoogleEarth's navigation kicks the pants off World Wind though.

 

[Badcop]

Does anyone know of a way to update the image in google earth? I ask cause the last image of a house I lived in was from 5 yrs ago, not very to date as far as Im concerned.

 

[broncodan]

virtualearth.msn.com is what I have used. They are really cool, but they suck in areas other than Utah. A few years back I heard that NASA was doing some study on what effects open green areas had on different weather patterns, and UT was one of the three places they were doing it. If you go anywhere else, the images just suck. It must have been the high res sat stuff they were doing for the test, but the images there are about 2 years old. My house is still a dirt pile on the map (about 2 years ago I started construction) but my office is only about 3 years old and it is on the map. What is interesting is that those pics are from different times, and then put together. If you look at things like schools and stuff, one high school will be playing a football game (Friday afternoon) and the another will not have one car in the parking lot, then the next one will be packed with cars and have heavy traffic around it. Wierd

 

[broncodan]

The pics in google earth are actually only about 16 months old. Very cool.

 

[Pathos]

The field of global imaging pretty mutch goes by the name of GIS (Geographic Information Systems) Google's recent aquisition of the Keyhole and hence the renaming to Google Earth is nothing new. It mearly opend the publics eye to what is availble.

You COULD commision images of just about any area of the planet for a fee from any of number of companies that provide coverage. IKONOS 2 or KVR-1000 images should be relativly easy to commision.

Georgia Tech used to have a VERY open policy where it comes to desiminating the information aquired from the array of sats up in the sky. Tho last time i checked they were charging ofr access to thier resources.

Basicly what it comes to AFA getting NEW images is you will have to pay for it or aquire it from one of the agencies that provide it to the public free of charge. Intergrating it into a package that is easy to use by anyone is a GOOD thing but do not expect todays or even this months images to be freely handed out via an easy to use app.