The official blog for Google Maps
Exploring 1938 San Francisco through aerial photography in Google Earth
March 9, 2012
Editors Note:
Today’s guest author is David Rumsey, President of Cartography Associates and founder of the
David Rumsey Map Collection
, an online archive of historical maps and cartographic materials. Additional pieces from this collection can be viewed in Google Earth by browsing the
Rumsey Historical Maps layer
.
In August of 1938, a pioneer of aerial photography, Harrison Ryker, worked with pilots out of Oakland Airport to create a series of high resolution images of San Francisco. Each pilot flew from north to south, completing about 12 passes to create a group of vertical black-and-white photographs, overlapping each other by approximately 30 to 50 percent. The result was 164 large prints covering the entire city at about 1 meter resolution. Residents of San Francisco can enjoy these magnificent photographs by visiting the
San Francisco Public Library
. But if you don’t happen to be visiting the Bay Area anytime soon, you can also enjoy the
entire collection
online, courtesy of the
David Rumsey Map Collection
.
While cataloging these historic images, our team
geo-referenced
each photo to create a
mosaic
of all the images, corrected for terrain variation, lens distortion, and variance of angle. This was a challenging task because we did not have any records of the project’s camera calibration report, lens used, or any other specifics on how the original photos were produced. Rather, we had to rely on placing ground control points in the correct places to get the desired accuracy. Glenn Bachmann of the Rumsey Map Collection led this project, the results of which allow the 1938 imagery to be overlaid on current satellite views of the city in
Google Earth
when you turn on
historical imagery
for San Francisco. You can also view these historic photos in geographic context online in the
Rumsey Historical Maps online gallery
using the
Google Earth plug-in
.
Composite of 1938 aerial photos of San Francisco
The individual aerial photos that make up the mosaic above of the entire city of San Francisco are each 50 cm high and 60 cm wide, with an effective scale of 1:2,000. The prints are in very good condition with high contrast and sharp detail, as you can see in the example below of the area around the Ferry Building at the foot of Market Street.
Aerial Photograph 18
,
area around the Ferry Building in San Francisco, 1938
It is endlessly fascinating to compare the city in 1938 to the current landscape. The area around the old Mission Bay has undergone a huge transformation: you can see the old Southern Pacific Railroad round house, which is now transforming into the University of California’s Mission Bay Campus.
Detail of
Aerial Photograph 14
, Mission Bay Railroad Yards, Southern Pacific Round House, San Francisco, 1938
Another part of the city that has experienced tremendous growth are the sand dunes of the Outer Sunset district, now filled in with the Doelger housing developments of the 1940’s.
Aerial Photograph 148
, Sand dunes in the outer Sunset District, San Francisco, 1938
Some of the images show parts of the cities that are no longer part of the modern landscape. Below you can see the cemeteries around Lone Mountain that were moved to Colma in the 1940’s.
Aerial Photograph 85
, Calvary and Laurel Hill Cemeteries, San Francisco, 1938
Learning more about the creator of this historical archive proved to be nearly as much of a challenge as geo-referencing and cataloging his work. After much sleuthing, Dan Holmes of the Rumsey Map Collection was able to uncover more detail about Harrison Ryker’s life and work online. You can read more about Mr. Ryker in our
blog post about the aerial photographs
on the David Rumsey Map Collection website.
We are grateful to the San Francisco Public Library and Susan Goldstein of the library’s
San Francisco History Center
for making these amazing photographs available to the public, and for saving and preserving them for the past 74 years!
This is an exciting time for historical aerial photography. New technology creates a platform for these images to be scanned, georectified, mosaicked and enjoyed by people all over the globe.
Google Earth
and
Google Maps
give new life to these images, pulling them out of the archives and encouraging comparison to present-day imagery. These photographs combine the best aspects of photographic veracity and immediacy with the scale, artistry, and cartographic tools of mapping. It is like combining a photograph and a map of the same place, together. We hope that more of these aerial photographs will be scanned and geo-referenced, covering all parts of our globe, helping us to see in detail how the world looked from above, long ago.
Posted by David Rumsey, founder of the
David Rumsey Map Collection
Make Google Maps yours at SXSW
March 8, 2012
If you’re heading to
South By Southwest
(SXSW) this year, make
Google Maps
your tour guide to everything and everywhere you need to go.
First, we’re powering the map in the
official SXSW GO mobile app
so you can find your way around the concerts, films, sessions, and events.
Second, as part of the
Google Village
, we have our very own
Google Maps house
! Within the house, we’ll showcase the latest features on
Google Maps for Android
including navigation and indoor maps, as well as show you how to add your local knowledge and improve Google Maps for your fellow users with
Google Map Maker
. We’ll also be hosting
Schemer
- a new way to help people discover and share stuff to do. To get schedule and times visit our
webpage
.
Bar 96 in Street View
and the
Google Village at SXSW
Like any tour guide should, we always give the best recommendations on where to eat, shop and play -- all at a good price. For those attending, we have happy hours hosted by
Zagat
to give you a taste of Austin and by
Google Offers
with a few “sweet” deals to experience.
Not to be missed:
Live demos and games for
Google Maps for Android
Live demos for
Google Map Maker
Join
+Trey Ratcliff
for his
+Schemer
Photowalk — and help him break the world record!
Join Bike Hugger as they start at the Google Maps house for their
annual SXSW bike ride
Listen to
+Daria Musk
presented by the Schemer team
For a full schedule of Google Village events, visit:
http://www.google.com/events/sxsw/schedule/
If you can’t make it to SXSW, look out for the
Hangouts
we will be hosting so you can always come visit us virtually! When you see the giant Google Maps pin with a Street View car in front of it - you’ve arrived.
See you in Austin!
Posted by David Kim, Product Marketing Manager, Google Maps
New 45° imagery available for 56 cities
March 8, 2012
The latest 45° imagery update in Google Maps is a big one; it features new imagery for 23 U.S. and 33 international locations. This also marks the first time we're publishing 45° data for the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Bratislava is the capital of Slovakia. Due its location along the Austrian-Hungarian border, the city has been visibly influenced by several cultures. The imagery below features the beautiful Grassalkovich Palace, a Baroque-style summer residence which is now the residence of the Slovakian president.
View Larger Map
As the former capital of the Roman Empire, Rome is one of the most famous cities in the world. Historically attracting the best artists, sculptors and architects, Rome was a cradle of western civilisation. Now, its extraordinary monuments and museums make it among the world's most visited tourist destinations. The map below shows the Colosseum that was erected in about 80 AD as a theatre for public events like gladiator fights.
View Larger Map
Innsbruck, located in the Austrian Alps, was a former residence of the Habsburgian emperor, Maximilian I. Several buildings, like the Hofkirche and the Goldenes Dachl, that date back to that era still stand. Today, Innsbruck is a popular winter resort that has hosted the Winter Olympics twice.
View Larger Map
Milwaukee, Wisconsin originated as a French trading post in 1785. In the nineteenth century, German immigrants played a key role in defining Milwaukee's unique character by establishing infrastructures like a freely accessible lakeshore and a system of public transport. These days, Milwaukee has many major attractions including the Milwaukee Riverwalk, Miller Park, and the internationally renowned Milwaukee Art Museum.
View Larger Map
Have fun exploring the new sites!
Below is the full list of updated cities:
US:
Athens, AL; Augusta, GA; Belen, NM; Fairfield-Travis Air Force Base, CA; Fort Myers, FL; Graniteville, SC; Jackson, MS; Lakeside FL; Lakewood, WA; Liberty, KS; Lillian, FL; Livermore, CA; Magna, UT; Manteca, CA; Midland, TX; Milwaukee, WI; Moores Mill, AL; Prattville, AL; Shreveport, LA; Summerville, SC; Waco, TX; Yukon, OK; Yuma, AZ
Austria:
Innsbruck; Wiener Neustadt
Czech Republic:
Brno; Frýdek-Místek; Hradec Králové; Jihlava; Karlovy Vary; Liberec; Most; Olomouc; Pardubice; Plzen; Praha; Teplice; Ústí nad Labem; Zlin
Italy:
Napoli; Roma
Slovakia:
Bratislava
Spain:
Alicante; Aranjuez; Cabo Roig; Ciudad Real; Elche; Huesca; Iruña de Oca; Jaen; Las Rozas; Logroño; Salamanca; Segovia; Vitoria
Switzerland:
Genève
Posted by Bernd Steinert, Geo Data Specialist
Protecting the world’s coral reefs through mapping
March 6, 2012
Editors Note:
Today’s guest author is
Katie Reytar
, a Research Associate for the
World Resources Institute
. WRI was the recipient of a
Google Earth Outreach Developer Grant
, funded through the Google Inc. Charitable Giving Fund at the
Tides Foundation
. We’re excited to help them share and visualize the results of years of research about the state of the world’s reefs.
Since 1998, the
World Resources Institute
(WRI) has been using GIS (Geographic Information System) models to develop map-based assessments of threats to the world’s coral reefs.
Reefs at Risk Revisited
, rel
eased i
n February 2011, is the latest assessment in the series and is based on a nearly three-year study that produced the most highly-detailed global maps of coral reef threats to date. The study analyzed and mapped threats to coral reefs from local human activities such as coastal development, unsustainable fishing, and marine and land-based pollution, as well as climate-related threats caused by increasing levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.
While the Reefs at Risk Revisited
report
,
maps
and
data sets
are the core components of our work, we found ourselves still searching for a compelling way to convey our findings on these dynamic yet fragile reef ecosystems. We also wanted to generate greater awareness of the unique characteristics of reef habitats across different geographies and the irreplaceable cultural and life-sustaining services that reefs provide to people all over the world. All of these elements are best communicated when you can see them for yourself, which is why we created a virtual tour of these reefs around the world with our
Google Earth Outreach Developer Grant
.
Watch a virtual tour of the most at-risk reefs in the world courtesy of the World Resources Institute.
In the
tour
, the Reefs at Risk Revisited maps come alive on
Google Earth
with photos and underwater video from each of the major coral reef regions of the world:
the Caribbean
,
Middle East
,
Indian Ocean
,
Southeast Asia
,
Australia
, and
Pacific
, as well as a global-level
introduction
and
conclusion
. The journey to each region provides a brief overview of the biodiversity of reef ecosystems, their importance to people and local economies, and the types and magnitudes of threats that reefs face, illustrated with footage of both healthy and damaged reefs.
You’ll also experience first hand these fantastically dynamic and productive ecosystems that extend across about 250,000 sq km (96,500 sq miles) of the tropical ocean. Even though this area represents less than 0.1% of the global ocean, reefs are home to as many as 25% of all known marine species. In the tropics, coral reefs are not only a critical habitat for marine species, but they also play an essential role in the lives of millions of people who live near them: they provide food and income from fisheries, revenue from tourism, and protection for coastal communities from storm surges.
Among the other products of the Reefs at Risk Revisited project are global maps of coral reefs rated according to level of threat in the present, 2030, and 2050. These maps are available as
downloadable KML
files on the WRI website for viewing on Google Earth, and also as part of an
online map
developed using
Google Fusion Tables
. With these interactive maps you can zoom in to your favorite reef to explore it more closely in your own self-guided tour.
Explore Reefs at Risk Revisited in Google Earth.
We hope that you enjoy our tour and maps, and that you are able to visit a coral reef to learn more about these important and unique ecosystems. With improved understanding, we can
manage and protect these resources
so that we can all enjoy them and benefit from them for generations to come.
Posted by Katie Reytar, Research Associate at the World Resources Institute
Mapping the March to Tampa
March 6, 2012
Cross-posted on the
Google Politics & Elections
blog
Super Tuesday has arrived! So far, 12 states have held caucuses or primaries to nominate a Republican presidential candidate in time for the RNC convention in Tampa this August. Today, 10 more states with 419 delegates at stake will get a chance to add their voices. From Alaska’s Bering Sea to the Georgia’s Golden Isles, voting will span five time zones and over 4,000 miles; by the time polling closes in Nome, AK, it’ll be 12 a.m. on the East Coast.
Our Politics & Elections team has mapped the results of every contest since Iowa, and now we’ve upgraded the visualization. The new map lets you track both the state-by-state numbers as well as the results by county, with delegate counts in addition to raw numbers and percentages from
the AP
. This auto-updating map will live on
google.com/elections
, and outlets subscribing to Associated Press election results can also embed it on their site.
We also have some other great tools to help you make sense of this year’s political scene. Our
infographic gallery
features Google Insights for Search data, much of which is broken down by state to make sense of regional variation. Follow the
Google+ page
for Hangouts on Air with prominent political reporters and daily insight. And if you just want to quickly look up how things are going, you’ll find
fresh results in Google search
on both desktop and mobile.
Posted by Jesse Friedman, Google Politics & Elections Team
Follow in Darwin's footsteps with the iNaturalist mobile app
February 24, 2012
Editor’s Note:
Today’s guest author is Dr. Scott Loarie, a fellow at the Carnegie Institution for Science at Stanford and co-director of
iNaturalist.org
, a biodiversity citizen-science website. Pepperwood Preserve was the recipient of a
Google Earth Outreach Developer Grant
, funded through the Google Inc. Charitable Giving Fund at the
Tides Foundation
. We’re excited to share how the iNaturalist Android application developed as a result of this grant is being used in action at Pepperwood Preserve.
Last weekend, as I rolled back a piece of bark at
Pepperwood Preserve
to reveal a big black beetle, I was reminded of a great story about
Charles Darwin
. Out collecting beetles, Darwin already had a beetle in each hand when he spotted a third. To free up a hand, he popped one of the beetles in his mouth. No sooner had he done this when it excreted some sort of burning liquid onto his tongue forcing him to spit it out, drop the second, and miss his chance for the third.
Now in 2012, all I had to do was point my phone at the beetle and
snap its picture
with the iNaturalist app (available on
iOS
and
Android
). Beetle mishaps aside, following in Darwin's footsteps wasn't really something non-scientists could participate in until recently. Specimens had to be collected, stuffed and shipped to museums where they were identified, labeled and catalogued. But with new technologies like
Google Maps
and smartphones, contributing data to museums now only takes a single click.
Pepperwood Research Specialist Morgan Kennedy demonstrates how to use the iNaturalist app to observe a native grass at Pepperwood Preserve.
Last Saturday, Morgan Kennedy introduced the
Pepperwood Vital Signs project
on
iNaturalist.org
, a citizen-science website I help direct, to a group of about 20 community members at Pepperwood Preserve. The project aims to map the distribution of plants and animals across the preserve with geo-referenced photos contributed by community members. The community members participating in the project often don't know the name of the species they are photographing, but by passing the contributions on to international museum consortiums and conservation organizations, iNaturalist photos are usually identified by scientists and experts within a few days.
Over the last year, community members have documented more than 400 distinct species by uploading more than 900 geo-referenced photos from Pepperwood. As the pilot preserve participating in the new
Bay Area Open Space Council BioAtlas initiative
, Pepperwood is developing ways to use iNaturalist to assemble the contributed data into digital education materials that can be used by the preserves to further engage and educate their community members.
This Google Map shows the Pepperwood Boundaries and more than 900 contributions to the
Pepperwood Vital Signs project
on
iNaturalist.org
.
Saturday's training was especially exciting because Morgan demoed the new Android App that iNaturalist developed with the support of a Google Earth Outreach Developer Grant to Pepperwood. By making the contribution of data to museums easy and fun, the Android app clears a major barrier towards recruiting non-scientists to participate.
These reinforcements couldn't have arrived sooner. Plants and animals are disappearing about 1,000 times faster than normal with ongoing climate and land-use change, and one of the most difficult hurdles towards addressing these challenges has been the basic scarcity of information about where plants and animals persist and where they do not. Without the help of non-scientists, the handfuls of museums and graduate students tasked with providing this information simply can't scale to meet these challenges.
Want to get involved? Download the app (on
iOS
or
Android
), get outdoors, and start documenting nature from wherever you are in the world! If you want to start your own regional project, like the Pepperwood Vital Signs project, you can do that
here
. You'll be following in Darwin's footsteps - just don't be tempted to put any beetles in your mouth!
Posted by Scott Loarie, co-director iNaturalist.org
Imagery Update: Week of February 20th
February 23, 2012
The
Google Earth
and
Maps
Imagery team recently published another batch of satellite imagery. In this post, we’ll explore a few well-known locations from across the globe.
Our first example is the
Bristol Motor Speedway
, located outside of Bristol, Tennessee. This NASCAR short track speedway is the 8th largest sports venue in the world, and hosts up to 165,000 people.
Bristol Motor Speedway, Bristol, Tennessee
If you think the typical NASCAR race is too crowded, how about visiting a location with a few million others on a single day? That’s the estimated crowd size expected each year to the Kaba (shown below), in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, on the day of the annual Islamic pilgrimage Hajj.
The Kaaba, Mecca, Saudi Arabia
Another great place to visit - either virtually or in person - is the Grand Mediation Amphitheatre located in the
World Dhammakaya Centre
in Pathum Thani Province, Thailand. As shown below, the Centre provides a place where anyone is welcome to meditate.
The World Dhammakaya Centre, Pathum Thani Province, Thailand
If you prefer to spend your leisure time contemplating classic literature, you’ll enjoy this final example from Spain’s central La Mancha region. This perspective view highlights the vineyards and arid plateaus that form the backdrop of The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha.
Perspective view of Castile–La Mancha, Spain
If you’d like to receive an email notification when the Google Earth and Maps Imagery team updates your favorite areas(s), we’ve got just the tool: The
Follow Your World
application!
These are only a few examples of the sites that can be seen and discovered in our latest batch of published imagery. Happy exploring!
Countries/regions receiving high resolution satellite updates:
Albania, Algeria, Angola, Antarctica, Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Belarus, Belize, Benin, Bermuda, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Botswana, Brazil, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cambodia, Cameroon, Canada, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Chad, Chile, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Croatia, Cuba, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Djibouti, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Eritrea, Estonia, Ethiopia, Fiji, Finland, France, Gabon, Georgia, Germany, Ghana, Gibraltar, Greece, Greenland, Grenada, Guatemala, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Haiti, Honduras, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Iran, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Lebanon, Lesotho, Liberia, Libya, Lithuania, Macedonia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Marshall Islands, Mauritania, Mayotte, Mexico, Moldova, Mongolia, Morocco, Mozambique, Myanmar, Namibia, Nepal, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Niger, Nigeria, North Korea, Norway, Oman, Pakistan, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, People's Republic of the Congo, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Romania, Russia, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Somalia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Suriname, Svalbard, Swaziland, Sweden, Switzerland, Syria, Taiwan, Tajikistan, Tanzania, Thailand, The Bahamas, The Gambia, Timor-Leste, Tunisia, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Uganda, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States, Uruguay, Uzbekistan, Venezuela, Vietnam, Western Sahara, Yemen, Zambia, Zimbabwe.
These updates are now available in both Google Maps and Google Earth. For a complete picture of where we updated imagery, download
this KML
for viewing in
Google Earth
.
Posted by Eric Kolb, Geo Data Strategist
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