Google Earth

I love Google Earth,, great time waster, but informative and fun.

My youngest daughter (in Australia) just moved house and I wanted to get some idea where she lives.

I've noticed I can't zoom into some continents to get any kind of detail, it's only a mass of blur. Asia, Europe, the UK, the Middle East and parts of Africa are fine ,,but Australia, North and South America are just a blur.

I am I looking too deeply into this?

Check out the difference. Also check out the altitudes.

Pic 1. Where we live in Vientiane Laos
Pic 2. Where my house is in Australia

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Well, Google Earth is selective about what to include in the high-res images -- metropolitan areas and highly populated areas will be a priority and then the farther you get out into "rural" areas or, say, forested areas and such the resolution of the images will decrease until like you note, it all just turns to mush.

This is the way it's always been and it has nothing to do about particular countries -- much of the good ol' US of A shows up as much because we have a huge amount of lowly populated areas, national forest areas and such things.

But it is cool what they have been able to do with the high res imagery! I've never delved into any learning of satellite imagery or whether they also utilize some planes and such like they use vehicles for their Streets app, But they do come up with some amazing stuff!

Tony,, look at the image of my neighbourhood in Australia,, it's an urban area. Previously, I was able to get a high res image down to 200 metres of my house.

Google Earth actually showed me my house from the frontal view and I saw myself, my wife and my dog sitting in the back yard.

Google hasn't gotten the whole earth updated yet. There are lots of areas, populated or not, that are not at good resolution yet.

Picture 1: Old Girl Guides campground that is down the road from me (looking south)
Picture 2: Nearby town, the south end of town has not been redone in ages.

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yogestee wrote in post #12411331
Tony,, look at the image of my neighbourhood in Australia,, it's an urban area. Previously, I was able to get a high res image down to 200 metres of my house.

So you're saying that earlier on they had it high-res and now the res has dropped?

Curious -- I know they do periodic updates, but I wouldn't have imagined that they would "update" higher-res images with lower-res images.

But, I haven't played with it for some time so haven't kept up or noted stuff like that.

Sounds like we should all go back to Flight-Similator so we know dang well what we'll be seeing!

tonylong wrote in post #12411498
So you're saying that earlier on they had it high-res and now the res has dropped?

Curious -- I know they do periodic updates, but I wouldn't have imagined that they would "update" higher-res images with lower-res images.

But, I haven't played with it for some time so haven't kept up or noted stuff like that.

Sounds like we should all go back to Flight-Similator so we know dang well what we'll be seeing!

This is right Tony.. Very strange.

Does it give you the date of when it was photographed? I know they have a Historical Imagery option that allows you to see previous images.

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No it doesn't Melody. I haven't updated to the newer version yet.

I have a feeling there is something going on with your location.

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Could be mate.. It's only been recently though.

Maybe I need to updat Google Earth.

BTW,, zoom in on Shellharbour, near the ocean. A 15 minute walk from my house.. One of the prettiest seaside towns on the South coast of NSW.

See also NearMap.com

Shellharbour: http://www.nearmap.com …743&z=15&t=h&nm​d=20110201

They get their imagery from planes overhead, not satellites. Higher res and very frequent updates.
Also has the history slider, but it's exposed in plain site on the top right of screen.

Have fun.

Jurgen, I am on a laptop without Google Earth right now, but can't you get the coordinates for that sector and post them? Looks like folks with a newer or different app could check it out and see what's up?

I use Google Maps from the Google website rather than Google Earth. What are the differences?

I watched as the high res images gradually moved out to our neighborhoods a couple of years ago. You can do the same with street images; they're gradually moving along and not all areas have been completed.

Check out this capture in south Chicago where the satellites caught an airliner about to land.

http://maps.google.com …0.00976,0.02272​4&t=k&z=16

I just went to the coordinates for both the Laotian and Australian photos Jurgen captured; both areas show in high res., although the pointer coordinates for the Australian shot appear to be offshore, by a jetty leading to an aggregate (crushed stone) quarry.