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Subject: FW: Google Earth goes to Sea
Google Earth goes to Sea The New York Times February 3, 2009
Google Earth Fills Its Watery GapsBy ANDREW C. REVKIN Two and a half years ago, the software engineers behind Google Earth,the searchable online replica of the planet, were poised to fill anenormous data gap, adding the two-thirds of the globe that is covered bywater in reality and was blue, and blank, online. But until then all of the existing features on Google Earth - mountains,valleys, cities, plains, ice sheets - were built through programmingfrom an elevation of zero up. "We had this arbitrary distinction that if it was below sea level itdidn't count," recalled John Hanke, the Internet entrepreneur whoco-created the progenitor of Google Earth, called Keyhole, and moved toGoogle when the company bought his company in 2004. That oversight had to be fixed before the months and months of newprogramming and data collection could culminate in the creation ofsimulated oceans. On Monday, the ocean images will undergo the mostsignificant of several upgrades to Google Earth, with the new versiondownloadable free at earth.google.com, according to the company. Another feature, Historical Imagery, provides the ability to scroll backthrough decades of satellite images and watch the spread of suburbia orerosion of coasts. Click a function called Touring and you can create narrated, illustratedtours, on land or above and below the sea surface, describing andshowing things like a hike or scuba excursion, or even a research cruiseon a deep-diving submarine. The two-year push to fill in the giant blue blanks came through a chanceencounter in March 2006. Mr. Hanke was poised to receive an award fromthe Geographical Society of Spain for his pioneering work buildingWeb-based models of the planet. But he was preceded at the dais by Sylvia Earle, a former chiefscientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration who wasthere to receive her own award for deep-sea exploration and popularizingocean science. She turned to him and said she loved the way Google Earth allowed usersto see how one thing relates to another on the planet. But Dr. Earlebluntly added: "You've done a great job with the dirt. But what aboutthe water?" Since that time, Dr. Earle and Mr. Hanke have been partners in the longeffort, as she explained, "to make sure the mountains don't end at thebeach." She assembled an advisory panel including Jane Lubchenco, the OregonState University marine biologist since chosen by President Obama tohead the oceanic and atmospheric agency. "I've been struggling my whole life to figure out how to reach peopleand get them to understand they're connected to the ocean," Dr. Earlesaid. "But I go to the supermarket and still see the United Nations of fishfor sale," she said. "Marine sanctuaries are still not really protected.Google Earth gets all this information now and puts it in one place forthe littlest kid and the stuffiest grownup to see in a way that hasn'tbeen possible in all preceding history." By choosing among 20 buttons holding archives of information, called"layers" by Google, a visitor can read logs of oceanographicexpeditions, see old film clips from the heyday of Jacques-Yves Cousteauand check daily Navy maps of sea temperatures. The replicated seas have detailed topography reflecting what is knownabout the abyss and continental shelves - and rougher areas where littleis known. With only 5 percent of the ocean floor mapped in detail, and 1 percentof the oceans protected, Google executives and the marine scientists whohelped build the digital oceans said they hoped the result would inspirethe public to support more marine exploration and conservation. During a recent test drive of the new features at Google's San Franciscooffice, I swooped in over Hawaii and dived beneath the undulatingwave-dappled surface of the Pacific to explore canyons, reefs and otherfeatures that are now charted precisely everywhere that government dataexist. I also revisited Greenland, the North Pole and Alaska's North Slope.And, in less than a minute using the Touring feature, I created a roughnarrated travelogue retracing reporting assignments in the Arctic,dropping in YouTube videos for any visitor to view on location. By hovering over Galveston, Tex., clicking on a pointer and sliding itforward along a bar reflecting years of data, I was able to watchseaside communities expand and then abruptly wash away after HurricaneIke. The feature powerfully conveys the increasing interplay of humans andthe environment, for better and worse, as populations grow and spread. The addition of the oceans posed many technical hurdles, not the leastbeing the aligning of disparate data sets so water meets land inprecisely the right places, Google engineers said. Other snags will almost certainly pop up as millions of users scour thenew terrain. But many of the ocean scientists who quietly worked with Google over thelast two years to pull together vast data sets are elated at theprospect of the seas' getting new visibility, and respect. "It's a way of raising awareness from thousands to billions overnight,"said Richard W. Spinrad, the N.O.A.A. assistant administrator forresearch, who served on an advisory panel. Barbara Block, a Stanford University biologist whose tagging projectshave helped clarify the hidden lives of bluefin tuna, great white sharksand other depleted species, said the blue side of Google Earth couldalso increase public support for marine conservation. "We cannot as a community conserve what we cannot see," Dr. Block said."We've worked with the Monterey Bay Aquarium for years to put giantbluefin and white sharks on display, and if we're lucky two millionpeople a year come and see the animals and discover their color, beautyof motion and form. With the Google oceans feature, we potentially canreach hundreds of millions." And, said Peter Birch, product manager forGoogle Earth, the presumption is that wherever lots of eyeballs andmouse clicks land, there is sure to be advertising revenue. In the threeyears since its public unveiling in 2005, Google Earth has become amainstay of students, travelers, businesses and researchers seeking aone-stop place for posting or finding information about the world - ontopics as diverse as hotels and hiking trails, species' ranges andclimate data. In that time, the software package has been downloaded on half a billioncomputers. Visitors spend one million hours a day perusing Google Earthand the related Google Maps. Some commercial Web sites, including shipwreckcentral.com andwannasurf.com, have already been actively promoting ocean activities andwill now enable divers or surfers to add their own narrated, illustrated"tours" of favorite reefs or beaches to Google Earth's layers. Organizations seeking to reconnect people directly with nature expressedguarded optimism when the new features of Google Earth were described. "Electronic images can boost awareness and sometimes even inspire, butthere's no substitute for direct experience in nature," said CherylCharles, the president of Children and Nature Network, which seeks toend what it calls "nature deficit disorder" in modern plugged-insociety. "Hopefully those exploring Google's virtual oceans, especiallychildren, can still find the time to get wet, as well." Copyright 2009 The New York Times Company
Nootka Marine Adventures
WHERE THE OCEAN IS OUR PLAYGROUND
Charter Packages or Bring Your Own Boat
www.goldriverfishinglodge.com
www.moutchabay.com
Email: h00kedonfishing@hotmail.com
Google Earth goes to Sea The New York Times February 3, 2009
Google Earth Fills Its Watery GapsBy ANDREW C. REVKIN Two and a half years ago, the software engineers behind Google Earth,the searchable online replica of the planet, were poised to fill anenormous data gap, adding the two-thirds of the globe that is covered bywater in reality and was blue, and blank, online. But until then all of the existing features on Google Earth - mountains,valleys, cities, plains, ice sheets - were built through programmingfrom an elevation of zero up. "We had this arbitrary distinction that if it was below sea level itdidn't count," recalled John Hanke, the Internet entrepreneur whoco-created the progenitor of Google Earth, called Keyhole, and moved toGoogle when the company bought his company in 2004. That oversight had to be fixed before the months and months of newprogramming and data collection could culminate in the creation ofsimulated oceans. On Monday, the ocean images will undergo the mostsignificant of several upgrades to Google Earth, with the new versiondownloadable free at earth.google.com, according to the company. Another feature, Historical Imagery, provides the ability to scroll backthrough decades of satellite images and watch the spread of suburbia orerosion of coasts. Click a function called Touring and you can create narrated, illustratedtours, on land or above and below the sea surface, describing andshowing things like a hike or scuba excursion, or even a research cruiseon a deep-diving submarine. The two-year push to fill in the giant blue blanks came through a chanceencounter in March 2006. Mr. Hanke was poised to receive an award fromthe Geographical Society of Spain for his pioneering work buildingWeb-based models of the planet. But he was preceded at the dais by Sylvia Earle, a former chiefscientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration who wasthere to receive her own award for deep-sea exploration and popularizingocean science. She turned to him and said she loved the way Google Earth allowed usersto see how one thing relates to another on the planet. But Dr. Earlebluntly added: "You've done a great job with the dirt. But what aboutthe water?" Since that time, Dr. Earle and Mr. Hanke have been partners in the longeffort, as she explained, "to make sure the mountains don't end at thebeach." She assembled an advisory panel including Jane Lubchenco, the OregonState University marine biologist since chosen by President Obama tohead the oceanic and atmospheric agency. "I've been struggling my whole life to figure out how to reach peopleand get them to understand they're connected to the ocean," Dr. Earlesaid. "But I go to the supermarket and still see the United Nations of fishfor sale," she said. "Marine sanctuaries are still not really protected.Google Earth gets all this information now and puts it in one place forthe littlest kid and the stuffiest grownup to see in a way that hasn'tbeen possible in all preceding history." By choosing among 20 buttons holding archives of information, called"layers" by Google, a visitor can read logs of oceanographicexpeditions, see old film clips from the heyday of Jacques-Yves Cousteauand check daily Navy maps of sea temperatures. The replicated seas have detailed topography reflecting what is knownabout the abyss and continental shelves - and rougher areas where littleis known. With only 5 percent of the ocean floor mapped in detail, and 1 percentof the oceans protected, Google executives and the marine scientists whohelped build the digital oceans said they hoped the result would inspirethe public to support more marine exploration and conservation. During a recent test drive of the new features at Google's San Franciscooffice, I swooped in over Hawaii and dived beneath the undulatingwave-dappled surface of the Pacific to explore canyons, reefs and otherfeatures that are now charted precisely everywhere that government dataexist. I also revisited Greenland, the North Pole and Alaska's North Slope.And, in less than a minute using the Touring feature, I created a roughnarrated travelogue retracing reporting assignments in the Arctic,dropping in YouTube videos for any visitor to view on location. By hovering over Galveston, Tex., clicking on a pointer and sliding itforward along a bar reflecting years of data, I was able to watchseaside communities expand and then abruptly wash away after HurricaneIke. The feature powerfully conveys the increasing interplay of humans andthe environment, for better and worse, as populations grow and spread. The addition of the oceans posed many technical hurdles, not the leastbeing the aligning of disparate data sets so water meets land inprecisely the right places, Google engineers said. Other snags will almost certainly pop up as millions of users scour thenew terrain. But many of the ocean scientists who quietly worked with Google over thelast two years to pull together vast data sets are elated at theprospect of the seas' getting new visibility, and respect. "It's a way of raising awareness from thousands to billions overnight,"said Richard W. Spinrad, the N.O.A.A. assistant administrator forresearch, who served on an advisory panel. Barbara Block, a Stanford University biologist whose tagging projectshave helped clarify the hidden lives of bluefin tuna, great white sharksand other depleted species, said the blue side of Google Earth couldalso increase public support for marine conservation. "We cannot as a community conserve what we cannot see," Dr. Block said."We've worked with the Monterey Bay Aquarium for years to put giantbluefin and white sharks on display, and if we're lucky two millionpeople a year come and see the animals and discover their color, beautyof motion and form. With the Google oceans feature, we potentially canreach hundreds of millions." And, said Peter Birch, product manager forGoogle Earth, the presumption is that wherever lots of eyeballs andmouse clicks land, there is sure to be advertising revenue. In the threeyears since its public unveiling in 2005, Google Earth has become amainstay of students, travelers, businesses and researchers seeking aone-stop place for posting or finding information about the world - ontopics as diverse as hotels and hiking trails, species' ranges andclimate data. In that time, the software package has been downloaded on half a billioncomputers. Visitors spend one million hours a day perusing Google Earthand the related Google Maps. Some commercial Web sites, including shipwreckcentral.com andwannasurf.com, have already been actively promoting ocean activities andwill now enable divers or surfers to add their own narrated, illustrated"tours" of favorite reefs or beaches to Google Earth's layers. Organizations seeking to reconnect people directly with nature expressedguarded optimism when the new features of Google Earth were described. "Electronic images can boost awareness and sometimes even inspire, butthere's no substitute for direct experience in nature," said CherylCharles, the president of Children and Nature Network, which seeks toend what it calls "nature deficit disorder" in modern plugged-insociety. "Hopefully those exploring Google's virtual oceans, especiallychildren, can still find the time to get wet, as well." Copyright 2009 The New York Times Company
Nootka Marine Adventures
WHERE THE OCEAN IS OUR PLAYGROUND
Charter Packages or Bring Your Own Boat
www.goldriverfishinglodge.com
www.moutchabay.com
Email: h00kedonfishing@hotmail.com
