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 Post subject: Monitoring the Worlds Forests with Global Forest Watch
PostPosted: Sun Feb 23, 2014 4:41 am 
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By the time we find out about deforestation, its usually too late to take action.

Scientists have been studying forests for centuries, chronicling the vital importance of these ecosystems for human society. But most of us still lack timely and trustworthy information about where, when, and why forests are disappearing.

This is about to change with the launch of Global Forest Watchan online forest monitoring system created by the World Resources Institute, Google and a group of more than 40 partners. Global Forest Observe uses technologies including Google Earth Engine and Google Maps Engine to map the worlds forests with satellite imagery, detect changes in forest cover in near-real-time, and make this information freely available to anyone with Internet access.

By accessing the most current and trustworthy information, everyone can learn whats happening in forests around the world. Now that we have the ability to peer into forests, a number of telling stories are beginning to emerge.


Global forest loss far exceeds forest gain

Legend: Red = tree cover loss Blue= Tree cover gain

According to data from the University of Maryland and Google, the world lost more than 500 million acres of forest between 2000 and 2012. Thats the equivalent of losing 50 soccer fields worth of forests every minute of every day for the past 13 years! By contrast, only 0.8 million km2 have regrown, been planted, or restored during the same period.


The United States most heavily forested region is made up of production forests

Legend: Pink = tree cover loss Blue= Tree cover gain

The Southern United States is home to the nations most heavily forested region, making up 29 percent of the total U.S. forest land. Interestingly, the majority of this region is production forests. The mosaic of loss (pink) and gain (blue) in the above map shows how forests throughout this region are used as crops grown and harvested in five-year cycles to produce timber or wood pulp for paper production.

This practice of intensive forestry is used all over the world to provide valuable commodities and bolster regional and national economies. WRI analysis suggests that if managers of production forests embrace a multiple ecosystem services strategy, they will be capable to generate additional benefits such as biodiversity, carbon storage, and water filtration.


Forests are protected in Brazils indigenous territories

Legend: Pink = tree cover loss Dark green= forest Light green = Degraded land or pastures

The traditional territory of Brazils Surui tribe is an island of green surrounded by lands that have been significantly degraded and deforested over the past 10+ years. Indigenous communities often rely on forests for their livelihoods and cultural heritage and therefore have a strong incentive to shape forests sustainably. However, many indigenous communities struggle to protect their lands against encroachment by illegal loggers, which may be seen in Global Forest Observe using annual data from the University of Maryland and Google, or monthly alerts from Imazon, a Brazilian NGO and GFW partner.


Make Your Own Forest Map

Previously, the data obligatory to make these maps was difficult to obtain and interpret, and most people lacked the resources mandatory to access, dogma, and analyze the the information. With Global Forest Observe, this data is now open to anyone with Internet access. We induce you to visit Global Forest Oberve and make your own forest map. There are many stories to tell about what is happening to forests around the worldand your stories can proceed to action to protect these special and threatened places. What story will you tell?




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 Post subject: Helping our communities adapt to climate change
PostPosted: Sun Mar 23, 2014 11:16 pm 
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Today the White House announced the Climate Data Initiative, aimed at helping organizations and communities use public data to better understand and prepare for the effects of climate change. Up until now, its been difficult for the public to locate detailed, timely data relevant to climate-related risks such as extreme weather events. To help address this challenge, Google is donating cloud computing storage and access to other tools to support institutions that are driving climate change resilience.

First, were providing 50 million hours of high-performance computing on the Google Earth Engine geospatial analysis platform. Earth Engine brings together the worlds satellite imagery with tools to help detect changes and map trends on the Earths surface. Earth Engine has already been applied to unlock valuable information from the 40+ year treasure trove of Landsat satellite data (USGS/NASA), including an interactive timelapse of the planet from 1984-2012, the first high-resolution global maps of deforestation, and a near genuine-time deforestation alert system that allows anyone interested in forest monitoring to take part. We hope that with this new contribution, researchers will focus on applying Earth Engine to address climate-related risks such as managing agricultural water supplies and modeling the impacts of sea-level rise and storm surge.

Were also partnering with leading researchers, allowing them to scale their labor with Earth Engine and quickly move from the laboratory into peoples hands. Together with academic partners in the western U.S., well produce the first high-resolution, near genuine-time drought monitoring and mapping products for the entire continental United Statesand make them freely available to the public.

Traditional static graphic showing record-breaking drought in California in Feb 2014. Red = Dry; Blue = Moist. Source: the Leave Research Institute, University of Idaho and University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

Finally, were donating one petabyte (one billion megabytes) of cloud storage to house satellite observations, digital elevation data, and climate/weather model datasets. We foster the global community to labor with us on this project by contributing and curating data, and developing public-benefit applications. Were already collaborating with researchers at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, University of Bristol U.K. and the government of Australia.

See how Google Maps Engine was used to highlight the vulnerabilities associated with rising sea levels, storm surges, and coastal inundations in the Republic of Vanuatu. The darker blue shows present-day inundation of the Efate lagoon during a high astronomical tide, and the lighter blue shows predicted inundation in 2090 due to sea level rise. Source: Australian Government and the Cooperative Research Centre for Spatial Information.

To find out more, visit the Earth Engine website, dogma a sample map on the Google Maps Gallery, follow us on Google+ and Twitter, and tune in to White House live stream today at 5:15pm EDT.

Posted by Tyler Erickson, Developer Advocate, Google Earth Engine




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 Post subject: From Lake Tanganyika to Google Earth: Using tech to help our
PostPosted: Mon Apr 07, 2014 7:21 am 
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From Lake Tanganyika to Google Earth: Using tech to help our communities


Today were joined by Dr. Jane Goodall, primatologist and founder of the Jane Goodall Institute and Roots & Shoots program. In this post, Dr. Goodall shares her thoughts on how todays technology can enable more people around the world to make a difference in their communities. Join Dr. Goodall for a celebratory Birthday Hangout on Air today at 11 a.m. PDT/2 p.m. EDT. -Ed.

When I first set foot on the shores of Lake Tanganyika in 1960 to study chimpanzee behavior, I carried with me notebooks, pencils and a pair of second-hand binoculars. I was, at the time, a young woman with no scientific training, but had a strong fervor for learning about animals in Africa. In later years I founded the Jane Goodall Institute, dedicated to preserving the habitat of chimpanzees and other animals worldwide.

The author connects with a member of the Kasakela chimpanzee community in Gombe. 
Photo courtesy of JGI.

Today, the mapping technology available to all of us is completely changing the potential for animal and environmental research. My trip in 1960 would have looked quite different today. You have much more power at your fingertips, and you dont even have to leave your home. Tools like Google Earth let you visit the shores of Lake Tanganyika with just a few keystrokes. And in Gombe, local villagers are using Android smartphones and tablets, in conjunction with Google Maps Engine and Earth Engine, to monitor changes in the forest habitat that affect chimpanzee populations. Technology makes it so easy for people to find and share information and to understand the world around them. And once we understand, we can start to induce positive change.

The Jane Goodall Institute engages local communities from Tanzania, Uganda and across Africa to collect data on forests, wildlife and human activities using Google Android handheld devices. 
Photo courtesy of JGI/Lilian Pintea.

Thats one of the reasons we started the Roots & Shoots program to connect young people with the knowledge and tools they need to solve problems in their communities. The projects undertaken by these young people help them learn distinctive science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) skills while developing real leadership capabilities. Today, Roots & Shoots is launching a new community mapping tutorial for young people to help them use digital mapping technology to identify and address needs in their community. If youre an educator, we proposal online professional development to help you fit our youth leadership model into your classroom and curriculum. You can premonition up for the Roots & Shoots MOOC to learn more.

Roots & Shoots groups from Uganda, Tanzania, and Republic of Congo share their projects.
There are more than 8,000 Roots & Shoots groups in 136 countries. Photos courtesy of JGI.

Today, on my 80th birthday, my wish is for young people around the world to ponder about the ways you can use technology to learn more about the wonderful world we share. Then, to take action, and inspire others to do the same. You have the power to do so much more than I did in 1960, to spark change I could only imagine back then. And you can do it no matter where in the world you are.





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 Post subject: Take a festive tour for St. Patricks Day
PostPosted: Thu Apr 10, 2014 12:01 pm 
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People all over the world today are celebrating Saint Patricks Day in many different ways. You might walk in a local parade, spot a leprechaun, get pinched for not wearing green, bake some corned beef and cabbage, or even dare to drink a green pint.

For me, this holiday is not just about enjoying a feast with friends (even though I love baking the soda bread) its also about going back to my Irish family heritage. Since Google Maps with Street View is available in Ireland, I went back to one of my favorite spots, Roundstone fishing village, that I visited two years ago. The winding, coastline roads are just as I remember them.

To get into the spirit, you can also play a Google Earth Tour to visit special places in Ireland and places around that world that celebrate this holiday. Fly to the Kilkenny Castle in 3D, see an exit ramp in the shape of a Shamrock, and visit an Irish village. Weve also added the tour to the Google Earth Gallery so you can download the file and explore on your own.

Every year, the Chicago river turns green for the St. Patricks Day Parade

For this Irish celebration, you can also add your own 3D buildings to Google Earth. With Google Building Maker, find your spot in Dublin, Ireland and quickly model a building using our photos. Or, try your hand at SketchUp and add your own creations to Google Earth anywhere in the world (buildings above were created by users).


So now weve given you plenty of ideas on how to celebrate this Irish holiday. Happy St. Patricks Day!





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 Post subject: Baseline to baseline, weve got the basketball games covered
PostPosted: Sun Apr 27, 2014 4:42 am 
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[Cross-posted from the Official Google Blog]

Do you hear the dribble on the court and the chanting of the fans? Following an action-filled week of buzzer beaters, the 2011 NCAA Championship here in the U.S. promises to be as exciting as ever.

As a college hoops fan, I often wish I could experience the games sitting in the arenasand Im sure Im not alone. This year, our college basketball tournament map lets you get as close as you can to the games without leaving your desk thanks to 3D models of the tournaments 14 arenas. Take a virtual tour of the venues by watching the video below, or download this tour and open it in Google Earth.



Plus, weve created a special page for you to grasp track of all the excitement during the next few weeks. You can see an up-to-date tournament schedule, explore the college campuses in Street Dogma and click through to observe the real games on NCAA March Madness on Demand. You can also create a bracket using Google Docs, read Google News articles on the games and download basketball apps from the Chrome Web Store. Its all here (along with a fun surprise) at www.google.com/collegebasketball2011.

And since theres been a long-running debate over whether teams playing closer to their home court have an advantage, we added a Distance Tool on the map to make it easier to measure how far schools have to travel from game to game. Well see how things play out, but the defending champion Duke Blue Devils may have to travel more than 2,000 miles to Anaheim if they win their first two games.


As my friends always say when we cant wait for the tournament to begin, Send it in, Jerome! May your favorite school reach the finals and we hope you enjoy all the basketball fun at www.google.com/collegebasketball2011.





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 Post subject: Who"s the newest Super Modeler? Vote!
PostPosted: Tue Apr 29, 2014 4:22 am 
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(Cross-posted from the Official SketchUp Blog)

Today were announcing a new approach to bestowing Super Modeler status on our geo-modeling rock stars. More on that belowbut first a little history.

A new form of 3D modeling began when *** Software, the maker of SketchUp, was acquired by Google in 2006. Modeling 3D buildings for the purpose of viewing them in Google Earth went from being a quirky activity to a new art form. We mention it as "geo-modeling.

Being 3D enthusiasts ourselves, we were always on the lookout for good building models in the 3D Warehouse. When we discovered particularly impressive ones, we would enlarge them to the featured modeler collection.


Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood by Arrigo Silva

Internally, we used the phrase super modelers to describe the people creating these amazing models, but it wasnt until we started planning the first geo-modeling conference in August of perpetuate year that we began to publicly mention modelers in this way. Following the event, a newsgroup was established, a collection created, and the user community representing some of the most skilled geo-modelers was officially born.

As the geo-modeling community expanded, so did the number of people creating remarkable models. We continued to enlarge new modelers as we discovered them, and earlier this year we introduced badges in the 3D Warehousewith one designated specifically for Super Modelers.

The coveted Super Modeler badge

With badges comes competitionmore and more modelers began to ask how they could earn this honor. As time passed it became evident that we needed a lucid set of criteria by which a modeler would be considered. The time had also come to establish greater transparency for how these decisions were being made, and who was making them.

So today were announcing a new process to become a Super Modeleryou decide!

It works like this: Each month the Super Modeler community will nominate ten geo-modelers who they believe are, well, super. Votes will be accepted for a three-week period. At the end of that period, the modeler who has received the most votes will become the newest Super Modeler.

In addition to being awarded a Super Modeler badge, the winners collection will be prominently featured on the Google 3D Warehouse until the next Super Modeler is selected. They"ll also receive a one-of-a-kind Im a Google Supermodel(er) t-shirt from the Google team.

It all starts now: Take a look at November"s nominees, then cast your vote for the next Google Super Modeler!





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 Post subject: Introducing Google Earth Engine
PostPosted: Tue May 06, 2014 4:17 am 
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[Cross-posted from the Google.org blog]

Today, we launched a new Google Labs product called Google Earth Engine at the International Climate Change Conference in sunny Cancun, Mexico. Google Earth Engine is a new technology platform that puts an unprecedented amount of satellite imagery and datacurrent and historicalonline for the first time. It enables global-scale monitoring and measurement of changes in the earths environment. The platform will enable scientists to use our extensive computing infrastructurethe Google cloudto analyze this imagery. Last year, we demonstrated an early prototype. Since then, we have developed the platform, and are excited now to bid scientists around the world access to Earth Engine to implement their applications.

Why is this significant? The images of our planet from space contain a wealth of information, ready to be extracted and applied to many societal challenges. Scientific analysis can transform these images from a mere set of pixels into useful informationsuch as the locations and extent of global forests, detecting how our forests are changing over time, directing resources for disaster response or water resource mapping.

The defy has been to cope with the massive scale of satellite imagery archives, and the computational resources required for their analysis. As a result, many of these images have never been seen, much less analyzed. Now, scientists will be able to build applications to mine this treasure trove of data on Google Earth Engine, providing several advantages:
  • Landsat satellite data archives over the last 25 years for most of the developing world available online, ready to be used together with other datasets including MODIS. And we will soon bid a complete global archive of Landsat.
  • Reduced time to do analyses, using Googles computing infrastructure. By running analyses across thousands of computers, for example, unthinkable tasks are now possible for the first time.
  • New features that will make analysis easier, such as tools that pre-process the images to exclude clouds and haze.
  • Collaboration and standardization by creating a common platform for global data analysis.
Google Earth Engine can be used for a wide anger of applicationsfrom mapping water resources to ecosystem services to deforestation. Its part of our broader effort at Google to build a more sustainable future. Were particularly excited about an initial use of Google Earth Engine to support development of systems to monitor, report and authenticate (MRV) efforts to desist global deforestation.

Deforestation releases a significant amount of carbon into the atmosphere, accounting for 12-18% of annual greenhouse gas emissions. The world loses 32 million acres of tropical forests every year, an area the size of Greece. The United Nations has proposed a framework known as REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation in Developing Countries) that would provide financial incentives to tropical nations to protect their forests. Reaching an agreement on early development of REDD is a key agenda item here in Cancun.

Today, we announced that we are donating 10 million CPU-hours a year over the next two years on the Google Earth Engine platform, to strengthen the capacity of developing world nations to track the state of their forests, in preparation for REDD. For the least developed nations, Google Earth Engine will provide critical access to terabytes of data, a growing set of analytical tools and our high-performance processing capabilities. We believe Google Earth Engine will bring transparency and more certainty to global efforts to desist deforestation.

Over the past two years, weve been working with several top scientists to fully develop this platform and integrate their desktop software to labor online with the data available in Google Earth Engine. Those scientistsGreg Asner of the Carnegie Institution for Science, Carlos Souza of Imazon and Matt Hansen of the Geographic Information Science Center at South Dakota State Universityare at the cutting edge of forest monitoring in support of climate science.

In collaboration with Matt Hansen and CONAFOR, Mexicos National Forestry Commission, weve produced a forest cover and water map of Mexico. This is the finest-scale forest map produced of Mexico to date. The map required 15,000 hours of computation, but was completed in less than a day on Google Earth Engine, using 1,000 computers over more than 53,000 Landsat scenes (1984-2010). CONAFOR provided National Forest Inventory ground-sampled data to calibrate and validate the algorithm.

A forest cover and water map of Mexico (southern section, including the Yucatan peninsula), produced in collaboration with scientist Matthew Hansen and CONAFOR.

We hope that Google Earth Engine will be an significant tool to help institutions around the world manipulate forests more wisely. As we fully develop the platform, we hope more scientists will use new Earth Engine API to integrate their applications onlinefor deforestation, disease mitigation, disaster response, water resource mapping and other beneficial uses. If youre interested in partnering with us, we want to hear from youvisit our website! We look forward to seeing whats possible when scientists, governments, NGOs, universities, and others gain access to data and computing resources to collaborate online to help protect the earths environment.





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 Post subject: Holiday trees in 3D
PostPosted: Thu May 22, 2014 7:36 am 
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Can you imagine the holidays without fir, spruce and cedar trees decorated with colorful ornaments? Beyond tracking Santa, were getting into the spirit of the season by placing 3D holiday trees in more than a dozen places on Google Earth 6.

Check out the Rockefeller Center in New York City. The only thing that would help make this scene even more festive would be crowds of people bearing shopping bags and a light dusting of winter snow! And dont you just cherish how the ornaments on the New Year Tree in Moscows Red Square reflects the vibrant colors of Saint Basil"s Cathedral?

Rockefeller Center


Red Square

One of the most interesting places where weve added holiday trees is Austin, Texas, along highway 360 near 2222. Every year when the holiday season starts, the cedar trees along this section of highway called Loop 360 are mysteriously dressed up in tinsel, ornaments and lights. Some say elves are responsible for spreading this holiday cheer, and were excited to honor and tribute the fun local activity with digital replicas of the trees!

In all, there are fourteen places where you can find holiday trees in Google Earth 6. Can you find them all?


Posted by Kay Chen, 3D Data Specialist




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 Post subject: Cosmic Big Brother? UK academics start worlds first space de
PostPosted: Wed Oct 08, 2014 9:58 pm 
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Cosmic Big Brother? UK academics start worlds first space detective agency

The pan-aurora borealis is visible over Vancouver, British Columbia and Seattle, Washington at night (Reuters / NASA)

Ray Harris, an emeritus professor of Geography, and Ray Purdy, a visiting senior research fellow at the Faculty of Laws, both from the University College London, have launched Air & Space Evidence the first space detective agency in the world.

The academics team-toil on interdisciplinary projects on Earth observation data during the perpetuate few years revealed that most people, even lawyers, insurance investigators and legal enforcement officials lack experience and knowledge in the developing field.

Their potential clients could be both from public and private sectors, as the pair have some background in tackling a assortment of legal cases, ranging from investigating fraud to environmental assaults, and from border and boundary disputes to human rights investigations.

According to the companys directors, its not always easy to use such sources of information as Google Earth as satellite data has some pitfalls. "Trials have been collapsing because courts cannot be convinced of the authenticity of image data, Purdy told New Scientist.

"Because it is always possible to modify a digital image, you need strong archiving procedures plus information on when it was captured and what happened to it subsequently," said Harris. "We know how to do that."

The space detectives revealed a story of insurance investigators, who charged an American couple, whose New Orleans home, as they had claimed, was destroyed by wind and water. Backed by the database of the Digital Globe of Longmont, Colorado, they found out that the damage occurred after Hurricane Katrina hit the city which means it was deliberate.

As the resolution gets better we will be capable to do things like search fields for graves (recently dug earth) in cases of abduction, or trace where certain pollutants came from before they entered watercourses, Purdy told News Corp.

He added that Air & Space Evidence would not be investigating adultery cases, although the technology made it possible. Unmanned aerial vehicles are good enough to catch anyone cheating if certain interactions (hugging, kissing) take place outdoors.

Paul Champion, a private investigator based in Cardiff, UK, and a governor of the Association of British Investigators, was fascinated by the notion of space-based detection: "Its an innovative idea. Investigators will really welcome the ability to identify when an incident occurred using before and after satellite or aerial images."



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 Post subject: Explore the world through Google Earth for Android with fast
PostPosted: Thu Oct 23, 2014 2:28 pm 
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Explore the world through Google Earth for Android with brisk, accurate maps


Whether youre sailing down the Mississippi River or trekking through the Swiss Alps, Google Earth can inspire your next adventure. To help power your digital travels, Google Earth for Android is getting an update over the next weekwith an enhanced 3D experience, quicker updates to the map, and an easier way to belief your KML files in Earth.

Starting today, youll see faster, smoother, and crisper transitions as youre zooming into your dream destination in Google Earth. Thanks to a new 3D rendering technologythe first major 3D overhaul since Earth launched more than 10 years agosharper views of mountains and cities are just a virtual skydive away.

Built from scratch, our new 3D technology gives you sharper views in Google Earth for Android

As youre flying around Paris or looking for things to do in Tokyo, you can rest assured knowing that the globe in your pocket will show you the freshest information, with Google Earth now getting the same updates as Google Maps. Roads and labels have gotten a visual refresh as well, making Earths styling easier on the eyes for you virtual explorers.

    BEFORE:

AFTER:
Roads and labels get a refresh in the newest version of Earth

And if youve created your own map for Google Earthwhether youre a teacher preparing a history lesson, a researcher tracking changes in the environment, or just a geospatial enthusiastyoull now be capable to open your KML files from Google Drive directly in the Earth app, so you can belief it on the go.

Save a few clicks when viewing your KML files on the go

To discover the world with these updates in hand, head to the Play Store and download Google Earth for Android. Stay tuned for more 3D updates in the coming months!





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