45 Facts About Google Earth

Google Earth is a computer program that renders a 3D representation of Earth based primarily on satellite imagery.

Google Earth is able to show various kinds of images overlaid on the surface of the earth and is a Web Map Service client.

In 2019, Google has revealed that Google Earth now covers more than 97 percent of the world, and has captured 10 million miles of Street View imagery.

The web-based version of Google Earth includes Voyager, a feature that periodically adds in-program tours, often presented by scientists and documentarians.

Google Earth has been viewed by some as a threat to privacy and national security, leading to the program being banned in multiple countries.

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Core technology behind Google Earth was originally developed at Intrinsic Graphics in the late 1990s.

In October 2004, Google Earth acquired Keyhole as part of a strategy to better serve its users.

Google Earth's imagery is displayed on a digital globe, which displays the planet's surface using a single composited image from a far distance.

In 2013, Google used datamining to remedy the issue, providing what was described as a successor to the Blue Marble image of Earth, with a single large image of the entire planet.

Google Earth now uses a myriad of sources to provide imagery in a higher quality and with greater frequency.

For much of the Earth, Google Earth uses digital elevation model data collected by NASA's Shuttle Radar Topography Mission.

Google asserts that every image created from Google Earth using satellite data provided by Google Earth is a copyrighted map.

Any derivative from Google Earth is made from data on which Google claims copyright under United States Copyright Law.

The first 3D buildings in Google Earth were created using 3D modeling applications such as SketchUp and, beginning in 2009, Building Maker, and were uploaded to Google Earth via the 3D Warehouse.

In June 2012, Google Earth announced that it would be replacing user-generated 3D buildings with an auto-generated 3D mesh.

In June 2011, Google Earth increased the resolution of some deep ocean floor areas from 1-kilometer grids to 100 meters.

Google has programs and features, including within Google Earth, allowing exploration of Mars, the Moon, the view of the sky from Earth and outer space, including the surfaces of various objects in the Solar System.

Google Earth Sky allows users to view stars and other celestial bodies.

Google Mars is an application within Google Earth that is a version of the program for imagery of the planet Mars.

Google operates a browser-based version, although the maps are of a much higher resolution within Google Earth, and include 3D terrain, as well as infrared imagery and elevation data.

Originally a browser application, Google Earth Moon is a feature that allows exploration of the Moon.

Google Earth has numerous features that allow the user to learn about specific places.

In December 2006, Google Earth added a new integration with Wikipedia and Panoramio.

Google Earth includes multiple features that allow the user to monitor current events.

In 2007, Google Earth began offering users the ability to monitor traffic data provided by Google Earth Traffic in real-time, based on information crowdsourced from the GPS-identified locations of cell phone users.

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Liquid Galaxy has been used as a panoramic photo viewer using KRpano, as well as a Google Earth Street View viewer using Peruse-a-Rue Peruse-a-Rue is a method for synchronizing multiple Maps API clients.

The mobile versions of Google Earth can make use of multi-touch interfaces to move on the globe, zoom or rotate the view, and allow to select the current location.

Google Earth Pro was originally the business-oriented upgrade to Google Earth, with features such as a movie maker and data importer.

Google Earth Pro is currently the standard version of the Google Earth desktop application as of version 7.

Google Earth Enterprise is designed for use by organizations whose businesses could take advantage of the program's capabilities, for example by having a globe that holds company data available for anyone in that company.

Google Earth Enterprise allowed developers to create maps and 3D globes for private use, and host them through the platform.

Google Earth API was a free beta service, allowing users to place a version of Google Earth into web pages.

Google Earth VR allows users to navigate using VR controllers, and is currently compatible with the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive virtual reality headsets.

Google Earth Outreach is a charity program, through which Google promotes and donates to various non-profit organizations.

Google Earth Outreach offers online training on using Google Earth and Google Maps for public education on issues affecting local regions or the entire globe.

Google Earth Engine is a cloud computing platform for processing satellite imagery and other geospatial and observation data.

Google Earth Engine allows observation of dynamic changes in agriculture, natural resources, and climate using geospatial data from the Landsat satellite program, which passes over the same places on the Earth every sixteen days.

Google Earth Engine has become a platform that makes Landsat and Sentinel-2 data easily accessible to researchers in collaboration with the Google Cloud Storage.

Google Earth Engine provides a data catalog along with computers for analysis; this allows scientists to collaborate using data, algorithms, and visualizations.

An early prototype of Google Earth Engine, based on the Carnegie Institute for Science's CLASlite system and Imazon's Sistema de Alerta de Desmatamento was demonstrated in 2009 at COP15, and Google Earth Engine was officially launched in 2010 at COP16, along with maps of the water in the Congo basin and forests in Mexico produced by researchers using the tool.

In 2013, researchers from University of Maryland produced the first high-resolution global forest cover and loss maps using Google Earth Engine, reporting an overall loss in global forest cover.

Since then, Google Earth Engine has been used in the production of hundreds of scientific journal articles in many fields including: forestry and agriculture, hydrology, natural disaster monitoring and assessment, urban mapping, atmospheric and climate sciences and soil mapping.

Earth Engine has been free for academic and research purposes since its launch, but commercial use has been prohibited until 2021, when Google announced a preview of Earth Engine as a commercial cloud offering and early adopters that included Unilever, USDA and Climate Engine.

Google Earth has been blocked by Google in Iran and Sudan since 2007, due to United States government export restrictions.

Google Earth is featured prominently in the 2021 German miniseries The Billion Dollar Code, which serves as a fictionalized account of a 2014 patent infringement lawsuit brought against Google by the German creators of Terravision.

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