Post by Hill on May 1, 2015 5:38:44 GMT
There is a very useful article from NASA's Earth Observatory page HERE. It gives you some good information about the following topics. Though the article is specifically about satellite imagery, it applies to aerial imagery also, which is a significant portion or what you can see using Google earth.
1. Look for a Scale. Commercial, military, NASA, and weather satellites specialize in different scales. Knowing this helps to understand the imagery. Look at the bottom center to see which agency provided the imagery for a particular area. The provider of the imagery may change as you zoom in and out.
2. Define colors. You may see strange colors in the imagery. Sometimes these are true colors, but sometimes they are due to false color imagery, concentrating often on parts of the infrared spectrum. This is much less common in current imagery, but does exist.
3. Season and weather Using historical imagery you sometimes can see an area at different times and the difference between winter and summer can be quite marked. Google Maps has made a real effort in the past few years to make the whole earth look cloud free and ice free. This is good for a person wanted to go from point A to point B but has removed some very interesting imagery from the globe for those who like to see the earth in detail, but you can still find some evidence.
4. Find North. With Google earth this is as simple as pushing the "n" key. Pushing "r" resets the whole view to north being up and tilt being "0".
Consider your prior knowledge. Local knowledge can be very helpful in figuring out what you are seeing. Things look much different from high altitude compared to ground level, so start with an area you know. Look at other posts in the forums, particularly in the (Moderated) areas. Turn on the GEC layer to populate the view with links to posts by others.
5. Consider your prior knowledge. Local knowledge can be very helpful in figuring out what you are seeing. Things look much different from high altitude compared to ground level, so start with an area you know. Look at other posts in the forums, particularly in the (Moderated) areas of oGEC (old Google Earth Community). Turn on the GEC layer of Google earth to populate the view with links to posts by others from the oGEC.
1. Look for a Scale. Commercial, military, NASA, and weather satellites specialize in different scales. Knowing this helps to understand the imagery. Look at the bottom center to see which agency provided the imagery for a particular area. The provider of the imagery may change as you zoom in and out.
2. Define colors. You may see strange colors in the imagery. Sometimes these are true colors, but sometimes they are due to false color imagery, concentrating often on parts of the infrared spectrum. This is much less common in current imagery, but does exist.
3. Season and weather Using historical imagery you sometimes can see an area at different times and the difference between winter and summer can be quite marked. Google Maps has made a real effort in the past few years to make the whole earth look cloud free and ice free. This is good for a person wanted to go from point A to point B but has removed some very interesting imagery from the globe for those who like to see the earth in detail, but you can still find some evidence.
4. Find North. With Google earth this is as simple as pushing the "n" key. Pushing "r" resets the whole view to north being up and tilt being "0".
Consider your prior knowledge. Local knowledge can be very helpful in figuring out what you are seeing. Things look much different from high altitude compared to ground level, so start with an area you know. Look at other posts in the forums, particularly in the (Moderated) areas. Turn on the GEC layer to populate the view with links to posts by others.
5. Consider your prior knowledge. Local knowledge can be very helpful in figuring out what you are seeing. Things look much different from high altitude compared to ground level, so start with an area you know. Look at other posts in the forums, particularly in the (Moderated) areas of oGEC (old Google Earth Community). Turn on the GEC layer of Google earth to populate the view with links to posts by others from the oGEC.
