Fun education with google planet earth. Working with the Google Earth virtual globe

Google Earth, also known as Google Planet Earth is one of the company's most unusual Internet services. Many users have heard of it, but most perceive Google Earth as a kind of virtual globe. In fact, the capabilities of the system are much richer and more interesting.

Google Earth has a web version, a desktop version and applications for mobile systems. The functionality of all these versions is identical, but, according to our subjective observations, the applications and PC version are more convenient to use than the browser version. You can download all these versions athome page project. We will consider the most interesting features Google Earth, which transform the service from an interactive globe into a huge global encyclopedia.

Traveling to the past

Google Earth allows you to find out what a particular area looked like in the past. To do this, you need to activate the historical photography mode by clicking on the corresponding button on the main panel.

After this, by moving the slider on the panel that opens, we will be able to observe how this or that area has changed over time. For example, this is what the Kiev Olympic Sports Complex looked like in the winter of 2000:

Please note that for this feature to look the best, it is recommended to turn off labels and 3D building models in the Layers menu on the left. Otherwise, “ghosts” of houses that have not yet been built may appear on top of old images.

Measuring the distance on the map

Distance measurements are a great feature that allows you to easily find out the distance between objects on the map. To activate it, launch the “Ruler” mode in the main menu of the program.

Studying photorealistic models

Google Earth has huge base three-dimensional photorealistic models of architectural and design monuments. To access them, activate the “3D Buildings” mode in the layers panel.

Airplane mode

Why scroll when you can fly? One of the most amazing Google features Earth - flight mode. To activate it, select the “Settings” section in the menu, and then “Enter the flight simulator”.

Of course, you will have to get used to the controls. However, this is a very unusual and interesting experience.

Creating 3D locations

Many large cities are represented in Google Earth in three dimensions. This is what London looks like, for example.

If you think your city is too “flat”, you can create 3D models yourself, place them on a map and send them to Google. The company welcomes the addition of the database and regularly adds custom models to its collection. She even made up for those who want to do this kind of modeling.

Let's explore the sea

About 70% of the surface of our planet is covered with water. So why study exclusively land? In the "Layers" menu, activate the "Ocean" section and study the seabed. In combination with the 3D Buildings mode, you can find a lot of interesting things here. For example, the sites of many famous shipwrecks.

We go beyond the Earth

Despite the name of the service, you can find other planets in Google Earth. Click on the planet icon on the main panel of the program and select which celestial body you want to study. Besides the Earth, Mars and the Moon are also available. And when selecting the “Sky” option, users get access to detailed star maps.

It can show us in great detail almost any point on the Earth. We can visit any continent, wander the streets of cities. Using, we can look at the world not only from above, but also from an angle, and get closer to the surface so that we can even see human figures.

But by downloading the Google Earth program, you will get even more opportunities. You will be able to dive to the bottom of the oceans, visit the Moon and Mars, go back in time and see what our cities looked like before. You can be transported into space and even create your own Universe.

These new opportunities will be discussed.

First you need to download the Google Earth program.

Follow this link and click on the button Download Google Earth , download and install the program. A program shortcut appears on the desktop. You can also find it through the button Start - All Programs - Google Earth , and run from there, or, if necessary, delete.

When you run this program, you will see work area A globe that can be rotated by grabbing it with the left mouse button. You can scroll the mouse wheel to zoom in or out.

Pressing a key Ctrl, you can use the left mouse button to turn yourself around relative to the Earth, so that it is not the Earth that is visible, but space: stars and nebulae. And using the key Shift You first fix a point on the Earth's surface and then rotate the Earth around that point.

You can also rotate the planet and change the scale using the slider on the right and the buttons above the slider.

Below are the pictures: they constantly change, depending on what part of the Earth you are looking at, and how close to the surface you are.

Using the mouse wheel, you can get as close to objects as possible, and then, while holding down the key Ctrl, turn around in any direction, and continue moving further in the chosen direction. By turning the wheel or grabbing the screen with the left mouse button, you move forward and backward. Using Ctrl, You turn around, and using Shift, You can move around the selected point. The result is a complete illusion of movement in three-dimensional space. When you perform such manipulations, sometimes a button appears at the top: Exiting Ground Level View , that is, you are on the surface of the Earth, and not above it. That is, figuratively speaking, you are stuck to its surface and cannot rise above it. To go back to the overhead view, you will have to click on this button at the top.

So you will be interested in visiting the mountains, above cities, and even under water, at the bottom of the sea or ocean. In this case, the coordinates of the place on the map where the cursor is located will be constantly visible at the bottom of the map: latitude and longitude, as well as altitude above sea level. It will also be written from what height you view the surroundings.

As you approach the surface of the Earth, a figure of a man appears above the scale slider. This means that you can drag it onto the map and place it on the area that interests you. After this, you will switch to viewing mode at ground level. You can exit this mode by clicking the button at the top. Sometimes when you move a little man, you end up not just on the surface of the Earth, but on street view, where you can move around the streets and look in any direction you like. To move to another location, click on it to turn, grab the screen with the left mouse button, and using the wheel you can move forward and backward. To exit this viewing mode, click on the button at the top Close Street View .

To find the object you need, you can use the search, which is located at the top of the menu. Enter in search bar name of the area, country, city, street where you want to visit, and press the button Search. Menu items can be collapsed and expanded by clicking on the triangles in front of the item names.

You can click the link Get directions , and register the starting and ending points of the route. You can choose a car option, public transport, walking and cycling. And you will see optimal route, distance and estimated time to cover. After this, you can click on the cross below and delete the result.

One of most interesting opportunities Google programs Planet Earth - the ability to use tags. Tags are in the left menu below the item Search. There are default labels called Sightseeing Tour in the folder My marks. Having opened them, you can get to any of the attractions in the list by double-clicking on its name. You can also select the entire folder Sightseeing tour , and click the icon at the bottom right Play video tour .

You can make your own marks and then quickly get to the places on Earth you need. To do this, click on the icon Add a tag , which is located above the card and looks like a yellow hairpin with a plus sign. Choose a place for the tag and write its name. The label appears in the item Tags in the left menu. If you wish, you can change the folder in which the label is located using simple drag and drop. Now, by double-clicking on this mark, you will immediately go to the right place on Earth.

To the left of the icons Add a tag there is an icon Hide/Show sidebar . By clicking on this icon, you can hide or show the left menu again.

This, of course, is not all the capabilities of the wonderful Google Earth program. The following articles will continue the review, in particular. You will learn how to use this program and also look into the past.

Video on how to use Google Earth

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Over the years of being on the Internet, I have used hundreds of various programs, utilities, games and widgets. But, perhaps, nothing fascinated me so much and brought me so much pleasure as the programGoogle Earth – Google Earth.

From the small world of my apartment, I move with the help of this program into the virtual (and at the same time very real!) huge world of our home planet. This world was created on the principle of a patchwork quilt by “stitching together” many satellite images surface of the Earth. Photos earth's surface have a high resolution, carefully adjusted to each other and most accurately aligned with the network of geographic coordinates.

With one movement of the mouse, I set in motion a globe suspended among the stars, and now it is already rotating in front of me - the mysterious, beautiful and completely accessible Planet Earth.

According to statistics, the majority of program users Google Earth they begin to get to know her, trying to find their home. I was no exception either. Simple option– rotation of the mouse wheel – allows you to zoom in or out of the surface of the planet, while the lower information line reports not only the coordinates of the selected point, but also the viewing altitude. Having “soared” over Eurasia, I find Black Sea, and, using it as a guide, I go lower, I see hometown, the outlines of its streets and neighborhoods... And here is the roof of my house, and the front garden in the yard, and the old poplar tree looking through the window near which I am now sitting... It seems that if I go down a little more, I will see myself at the computer through this window ! But Google Earth still has its limitations: from a height of about 200 meters or slightly lower, the outlines of objects become blurred as they increase. True, the program developers are constantly making changes, improving and improving Google Planet, so perhaps in another year in the courtyard of our house I will recognize the neighbors or discover my own virtual projection, a view from above...

You can also find mysterious giant paintings on the Nazca plateau, lost in the foothills of Peru. Wander between New York skyscrapers: you turn on the 3D function, and here it is, hitherto inaccessible Manhattan! Visit Valley of the Kings and city of the dead , see Niagara And Great the Chinese wall , rise to the heights Himalayas and go down on bottom of the Mariana Trench... You can spend hours exploring the depths of the ocean and the starry sky, and moreover, consider the surface of the Moon and Mars! How do you like the opportunity to learn how to fly a virtual plane using a flight simulator? The powerful and intuitive functions included in the program make your head spin!

As is known, Google– leader among search engines. Therefore, the search mechanism built into the Google Earth program works clearly and simply. We enter the name we need in the search bar at the top left - and select from the list of places of the same name where the geographical object we are interested in (or, say, the hotel, boutique or company we need) can presumably be located. Click on the selected name and smoothly move to the point on the Earth where the desired object is located. Easier done than told!

There are entire groups of enthusiasts who, day after day, painstakingly study Google Planet satellite images in search of new discoveries. You can try to find Atlantis, or you can discover an island in the shape of a heart or the world's largest kiss.

Finally, you can choose the shortest route between parking your car and the place where you are going to have a picnic, and at the same time find out the exact distance between them - for this there is a completely understandable Ruler option.

On the left panel of Tools there are many icons, including which you can see the borders of states, the names of rivers and mountains, cities and streets, architectural landmarks, and nature reserves.

But my favorite thing is photos! I enable this option, and small squares-photos appear above the map. Each of them “hangs” above the point on the surface where it was photographed.

At planning your independent travel I always consult the Google Earth program, enthusiastically looking through many photographs of the countries, cities or islands where I am going to go. This is a useful and extremely interesting pastime, and in the case of using the 3D effect - also with a full effect of presence!

And when I return from my trips, I periodically check out the Google-friendly site Panoramio ( http://panoramio.com/) photographs of places I have visited. Someone will definitely find it useful!

Here are some of those photos.

Of course, the Google Earth program cannot completely replace live perception: it will not give the body the feeling of touching the sea waves, the ears - the sound of someone else's speech and the chirping of cicadas, the sense of smell - the smell of tropical flowers and strange fruits, and the taste of the durian I fell in love with using this program the papillae of my tongue won’t feel it either... But it, this virtual journey, allows you to get to the most remote corners of our planet (and beyond) in a few minutes and see what even with an unlimited budget there is not enough time or energy for.

And for independent tourists, like me (and you, I hope!), this program also provides an excellent opportunity to take an even more exciting and creative approach to planning your future trip.

I hope those who have not yet discovered Google Planet are interested in me!

Google Earth is a program of the Google company, within the framework of which satellite photos of our planet. The main difference between this program and the cartographic Google Maps and others similar programs- this is the ability to three-dimensionally view the landscape of the earth's surface or buildings/structures. I would like to note that photographs of some regions have a very high resolution, which allows the smallest details look at the image.

The Google Earth program was developed and released by Keyhole, after which the program was bought by Google. In 2005, the program was opened to public access in the USA, then Europe and all over the world.

IN this moment The program is presented both free and paid versions (paid Google Earth Plus and Google Earth Pro(registered users can download them) have support GPS navigation, higher resolution when printing photos and more presentation tools.

Finding the program in a search engine will not be difficult, or you can click. It won't take long to download.

Required system requirements for installation:

Windows – Windows XP, Windows Vista or Windows 7
Mac – Mac OS X 10.6.0 or later
Linux – LSB 4.0 Libraries (Linux Standard Base)

Convenient when downloading is the ability to immediately change parameters and select the version to install.

Step-by-step video on installing Google Earth:

Working with the program

Working with Google Earth is very easy, you can do it based on intuition. After installing the program, hints on its use and all kinds of advice will pop up in the main background. If you do not need it, this function can be removed.

On the right top corner home page There is virtual joystick to rotate and bring the earth closer. However, your mouse can also perform this function - by right-clicking on the globe you can rotate it, and by double-clicking or scrolling the mouse wheel you can zoom in and out of the picture.

The latitude/longitude coordinates are indicated at the bottom of the screen and are linked to the cursor. This line also indicates the altitude above sea level.

Google Earth Features

After installing the program on a PC, it will automatically download images and other data needed by the user from the Internet and save them on the computer. This makes it easier for the program to work when you use it in the future, as well as save traffic.

The entire surface of the “software” earth is images, mostly shot at a resolution of 15 m per pixel. But there are also clearer images, as a rule, these are the largest cities on the planet (Moscow was shot with a resolution of 0.6 m/PC, and some US cities with 0.15 m/PC). Landscape data has a resolution of about 100 m/PC.

Users of the program can link their images to Google Earth and share them with other users of the program. To do this, you need to use the Google Earth Community forum, first send photos there, and after about a month the images will be available in the program.

On the left side of the screen, users are offered the following options:

Search
Tags

Search

This feature includes:

Flight. By search query or specific coordinates, it is possible to fly in the blink of an eye, for example to Madagascar.
Search for companies. Upon request of a specific company and indicating at least the country where it may be located, you will receive a list of companies and marks on the map where exactly it is located.
Routes. As on Google Maps, the user enters where he will be going from and where he will go, and receives a marked route on the map with intermediate points that can be dragged and thereby change the route independently. At the bottom of the list of points the route distance and approximate travel time are indicated. If desired, the route can be printed.

Layers

The most interesting section in the program, which allows you to overlay all kinds of symbols on the image of the earth's surface. To display a particular layer required by the user, you just need to check the box next to the desired layer.

Layers: Borders and Titles

Allows you to see the boundaries and names of states, islands, names of settlements, bodies of water and mountains.

Layers: Marks

Allows you to display city attractions, metro stations, educational establishments, entertainment complexes, restaurants, etc.

Layers: Photos

Enabling this function displays images taken by users of the program and attached to the program. Photos can be sorted into panoramic and volumetric (360 degree photos).

Layers: Roads

This layer highlights roads; when you zoom in on the map, it begins to display transport routes from the most significant to the country ones.

3-D

This function makes it possible to view all kinds of objects (even trees) in 3-D format.

Layers: Ocean

This layer allows you to explore such program capabilities as displaying the planet on a map:

Ocean Exploration - Displays pins on the map with short articles about the ocean.
Ocean species of living organisms - allows you to watch a video or read a publication about species of marine life.
Shipwrecks – marks the location of shipwrecks on the map, with notes about the ship itself and a short history about the incident.
The international project “Census of Marine Life” shows the habitats of marine organisms with a brief description.
Cousteau's Sea World - displays data on Jean Cousteau's exploration of the deep sea, with photos, videos and descriptions.
Marine protected areas – displays the boundaries of marine protected areas on the map.
Dead zones of seas and oceans - displays data about dead zones of seas and oceans.
Tracking the movement of marine animals - allows you to see the habitats of certain marine animals with a short description.
Ocean sports - allows you to see places, photos and descriptions about sports such as surfing, diving and kitesurfing.
National Geographic magazine – materials made and published in programs by National Geographic magazine.

Layers: Weather

This layer makes it possible to observe the weather throughout the planet.

Here you can use the switches to display:

Cloudiness. Shows a real picture of clouds above the ground. If the user, when opening the program, does not see clouds, but there are clouds outside the window, then they should simply zoom in.
Radar. Shows radar images of precipitation (rain, snow) using color coding.

When you turn on the radar and 3-D function, you can see the falling rain or snow in real time.

Image from Google blog LatLong Blog (Hurricane Alex 2010)

Weather forecast. Displays the temperature in Celsius and Fahrenheit; when you click on the weather icon, a window pops up with a detailed forecast for the near future.

Information. Displays detailed information presented in the Weather layer, including current time cloudiness display and the current time of the radar image.

Layers: Gallery

Here you can view information about the object, if it appeared on the Internet through the following media or downloaded data:

360 cities
Discovery Channel
Earthquakes
Everytrail
European Space Agency
Photos of Gigapan
Photos by Gigapxl
Google Community
National Geographics Magazine
Historical maps
Travel, tourism
Travel with Trimble
Volcanoes
Webcams.travel
Wikiloc
Youtube

Layers: Global Issues and Environmental Studies

Superimposed on the world map are photos of reports from various organizations that are trying to identify and find solutions. global problems planet Earth. Reports presented:

Appalachian Top Removal
ARKive: Endangered Species
Earthwatch Expeditions
Fair Trade Certifications
Global Heritage Foundation
Greenpeace
Jane Goodall's blog about the chimpanzees of the Gombe region
GoodPlanet: Earth seen from above
The Elders: Everyone has rights
UNDP: tracking the Millennium Development Goals
UNEP, United Nations Programme: Atlas of Environmental Change
UNICEF: water and wastewater treatment
United States Holocaust Museum: World Witness
USHMM: Crisis in Darfur
WaterAid
VVF environmental projects

Layers: More

IN this section hidden information about:

names of places in local language;
parks and recreation (which includes parks, golf, US Fish & Wildlife Service boundary, National parks USA);
bodies of water;
various categories of places (for example, coffee shops, hotels, banks, gas stations, pharmacies, shops, etc.), with quite diversified areas (such as cafes and restaurants serving Asian, Indian, Japanese, etc. cuisines, select what you need);
transport (includes information about all types of transport, such as airports, trams, railways, metro, buses, water transport, mountain railways);
road traffic (analogous to Yandex.Traffic)
descriptions of objects that are on Wikipedia;
images of products and services on earth provided by DigitalGlobe Featured Imagery (moreover, below these images can be filtered by year from 2002 to 2010);
satellite images from Spot Image;
US government (postal district boundaries, US congressional districts, US school districts).

Upper working Google panel Earth consists of the following buttons:

hide the sidebar with search, tags and layers;
adding a new label;
adding a polygon (a kind of mark);
path (also applies to labels);
image overlay (allows you to add a photo of a specific object or location);
video overlay (allows you to add video of a specific object or area);
show historical photographs (allows you to view photos of objects and locations from 2002 to 2012);
display sunlight(applies light to the terrain and objects depending on the time of day);
Switch between Earth, Mars, Moon and sky map (note that when you switch, the Layers change accordingly:

Earth

If speak about standard menu, then the following tabs may seem interesting:

View (allows, in addition to manipulating the side panel, including overlaying a coordinate grid, overview map, photo guide, atmosphere, sun, historical photos globe from satellite (from 1935 to the present day), water surface);

Tools ( useful option may become an import GPS data, well, the opportunity to fly using a flight simulator on F-16 or SR22 aircraft will be very interesting. Here you can choose to fly over any terrain)

Google Earth is a convenient and useful gadget, which I think everyone should have. The good news is that the program is constantly updated and new parameters are added, giving the user more and more opportunities to study our planet without leaving home.

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In celebration of Earth Day 2017, Google released big update For Google service Earth by adding new features and providing access from other platforms.

Google Earth is a service that allows you to view satellite images earth and not only from different angles. A special feature of this service is a large number of capabilities, this is what distinguishes it from other similar web services (for example: Google Maps, Yandex Maps, etc.) Implementing additional features Google requires downloading and installing this application on your computer, this is all explained by the fact that additional functions difficult to implement using web interfaces.

Download this application you can for free by going to the official website https ://www. google. com/ intl/ ru/ earth/ desktop/

Several versions of the Google Earth application are available for access. At the moment, you can use this service through the Google Chrome browser or by installing the Pro version on your computer, and it has also been developed mobile version applications for mobile devices under operating room control Android systems. A version for iOS systems will be released in the near future.

Google Earth for Chrome

As you understand from the title this version The service is available for use using a browser. So called online version has fewer functions and capabilities than the desktop one, but this does not make it unnecessary, since it retains all the most popular tools. To open Google web page earth online open Chrome and follow the link https://www.google.com/intl/ru/earth/

In this version of the program, just like in the desktop version, you can use the popular “Explorer” and “I’m Feeling Lucky” functions. Also available in the web version are viewing 3D maps, the “Measure distance” function, “Search”, etc. You can find all these tools in the panel on the left side of the page.

Explorer is a tool that provides interactive tours of interesting and famous places on our planet; the number of such collections is constantly growing.
I'll be lucky - a button represented in the form of a dice, which randomly transports the user to one of the random locations on the world map.

Google Earth Pro for PC

The Pro version is intended for downloading and installation on computers and laptops running operating systems Windows systems, Mac or Linux. The desktop version gives much more more features and capabilities than browser-based.

In this version you can study in detail any corner of the planet using cards with a description of the area.

Key features of the Google Earth Pro app:

You can add pictures of the area to the map and view the same pictures of other users, thus becoming more familiar with the location. These can be photographs of various rivers, lakes, mountains, buildings, monuments and other attractions;
You can see the distance from the earth's surface, and determine the height from which you are observing images of the earth at the moment;
Three-dimensional landscape and buildings in some cities. This function allows you to get acquainted with various places and attractions in 3D mode with the ability to view them from all sides and see the landscape of the area;
Resolution of earth images. This is one of the main differences from Google Maps; pictures of some capitals, cities and attractions are taken with very high resolution, which will allow you to consider all the details in great detail;
Possibility of connecting additional data. For example, titles settlements, reservoirs, airports, roads, railways, and other information. In addition, for many cities there are more detailed information- street names, shops, gas stations, hotels, etc. There is a data layer (synchronized via the Internet with the corresponding database), which displays links to articles from Wikipedia;
Distance measurement function;
“I'm feeling lucky” function (description above);
“Explorer” function (described above);
Google Sky technology, which allows you to view the starry sky;
The ability to view a three-dimensional map of the bottom of seas and oceans.

This application is well suited for people who constantly need to calculate distances, paths and plan competent routes. Many corporations use this product from Google to showcase your projects.

And special attention should be given Google features Sky for viewing the starry sky from a huge amount information about various galaxies, nebulae, stars, planets and cosmic bodies, etc. Using the mouse wheel and changing the scale, you can view various galaxies and photos of various comic bodies in high resolution, which are accompanied by detailed information attached to each of them.

Google Earth app

Currently among mobile devices this service Available only for operating systems running Android. Therefore, you can find and download it for free in the Google Play application store by clicking on the link: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.earth&hl=ru

The company is currently developing an application that will be available on other mobile devices. operating systems. This application works the same way as the web version for Google browser Chrome and has the same functions.

But judging by the reviews, this application is poorly optimized, so users of old smartphones with RAM Less than 1 GB does not provide the opportunity to work normally in it.

Conclusion

Travel fans and simply curious people simply need to pay attention to this application, since for now this is the only way you can take a virtual trip to different parts of the planet while sitting in your chair or from the screen of your smartphone. Undoubtedly this program has simply a huge supply of information, which is constantly supplemented by both developers and ordinary users. It’s also worth noting that a version for glasses was just recently released virtual reality, with the help of which you can immerse yourself in your virtual journey as much as possible.

Considering the desktop Pro version should not be considered only as entertainment, since its range of functions will help in solving quite complex and global problems, since many large companies are already using Google app Planet Earth as a tool for demonstrating your projects, since with the help of such a service you can create own cards and not only.

Also recently, the desktop version of the program has the ability to view detailed maps other planets, which will force space lovers to download and install it on their computer. Now anyone can view maps of the Moon or Mars on their computer and create their own virtual tour on these cosmic bodies.