My Google Map Blog

Archive for March, 2017


Whales in Google Earth

by Timothy Whitehead on Mar.28, 2017, under 3D Models, Argentina, Australia, Brazil, California, Denmark, England, Germany, Google Earth News, Google Earth Tips, Google Sky, Google maps, Hawaii, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Kenya, Mexico, Natural Landmarks, Netherlands, Sightseeing, Street Views, USA

We recently came across this interesting article about counting whales using DigitalGlobe’s satellite imagery. Unfortunately the imagery in question has not made it into Google Earth. We have several times, without success, searched through satellite imagery of Hermanus, South Africa, a popular whale watching location where Southern Right Whales come to calf every year. So, we did an internet search and found remarkably few sightings. We believe this is due to a combination of factors. Google Earth does not show much satellite imagery beyond a thin strip of ocean along the coast, and when it does, the resolution is dramatically reduced. Also the resolution of most satellite imagery is barely good enough to identify whales.

Here are the only finds we know about:


Off the coast of Maui, Hawaii. Found via twistedsifter.com.


Unknown species off Fraser Island, on the Eastern coast of Australia. Found via artcepts.blogspot.co.za.


Beluga Whales, Erwin Bay, Somerset Island, Nunavut, Canada. Found via the Google Earth Community


Southern Right Whales, Golfo Nuevo, Argentina. Found via googlesightseeing.com.

To find the above locations in Google Earth download this KML file.

If you know of any other whale sightings in Google Earth, please let us know in the comments.

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Google Earth Tour builder: Part 2 – Arcs between locations

by Timothy Whitehead on Mar.27, 2017, under 3D Models, Argentina, Australia, Brazil, California, Denmark, England, Germany, Google Earth News, Google Earth Tips, Google Sky, Google maps, Hawaii, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Kenya, Mexico, Natural Landmarks, Netherlands, Sightseeing, Street Views, USA

This is part 2 of a series where we gradually create a Google Earth Tour builder tool. We started last week with a tool that took a set of placemarks and created a tour that circles each placemark. The problem was the transition between placemarks just relied on Google Earth’s ‘fly to’ feature and wasn’t very nice at all. So today, we are adding an arcing flight between placemarks and more customization to the circling feature.

We get the view distance (range, in metres) and view angle (tilt) from the placemark.

Be sure to let us know in the comments if you find any bugs and any suggestions for further improvement / extra features.

The post Google Earth Tour builder: Part 2 – Arcs between locations appeared first on Google Earth Blog.

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