29 July 2005

Instant Maps for Storm Chasers--and Everyone Else

Thanks to Internet mapping resources like MapQuest, the days of unfolding and folding large travel maps while driving across the country are nearing an end. Now an entirely new kind of sophisticated map service is available from Google Maps.

Set aside some time before visiting Google Maps. This site should have an addiction warning, and chances are you will want to spend plenty of time surfing the maps and satellite images. You can almost instantly flip back and forth between the map and satellite view. Or you can select a hybrid view that superimposes principle roads over the satellite view.

Figure 1 is a Google Maps map of Denver, Colorado, and surrounding towns and communities. From this view, you can zoom in to individual roads.Or you can zoom out to show the entire State of Colorado. At any time, you can quickly flip to an image view of the selected map.

Figure 2 is a Google Maps map satellite image of a small portion of Albuquerque, New Mexico, along Central Avenue, the famous Route 66. The blue circle marks the site of the building on Linn Avenue where in the summer of 1974 Ed Roberts of MITS, Inc. developed the Altair 8800 microcomputer and began the microcomputer revolution. Paul Allen and Bill Gates arrived at this building to work at MITS in 1975. The race track at upper right is on the grounds of the New Mexico State Fairgrounds. MITS's first products, a model rocket light flasher and radio transmitter, were designed in a mobile home 8 blocks southeast of MITS.

Seasoned photointerpreters will note that some of the "satellite" images look more like high quality aerial photographs. This is particularly evident when comparing views of cities with the land around them. A quick search of Google Maps confirmed that aerial imagery is included with satellite images: "Check out our satellite view, which gives you access to satellite and aerial images of your locations that you can zoom in, zoom out, or pan in any direction."

Google Maps is not perfect and will forever be a work in progress. The road maps may not reflect the latest construction. And the satellite images have gaps and inconsistencies. By contrast, photomosaics of the surface of Mars are far clearer. But Mars doesn't have nearly as variable an atmosphere as Earth. Capturing consistent satellite views is difficult, and we end up with a matrix of images from a variety of satellites.

Forrest M. Mims III

 
Figure 1. An almost instant map of Denver, Colorado, from Google Maps. With a broadband Internet connection, the map can be almost instantly zoomed in or out or moved to a new location. (Image downloaded from Google Maps.)
 
Figure 2. An aerial image of a small portion of Albuquerque, New Mexico along Central Avenue, the famous Route 66. The blue circle marks the site of the building on Linn Avenue where in the summer of 1974 Ed Roberts of MITS, Inc. developed the Altair 8800 microcomputer and began the microcomputer revolution. Paul Allen and Bill Gates arrived at this building to work at MITS in 1975. The race track at upper right is on the grounds of the New Mexico State Fairgrounds. MITS's first products were designed in a mobile home 8 blocks southeast of MITS. (Image downloaded from Google Maps. Annotation added by TCS.)
   
Copyright 2005 by Society for Amateur Scientists