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Some GigaPan images are posted on Google Earth, a Google application that allows for close zooming on any area of the earth. Places where GigaPan images are placed allow for clearer, more detailed images than Google Earth itself would display. The images posted on the GigaPan website and Google Earth of places all around the world have made it easier for geology students to experience a variety of fieldwork

"You can use Google Earth to simply search for a place or try one our advanced features, such as recording a tour or importing GPS data. Whether you're learning to use Google Earth for the first time or you're already an expert user, here are some tools to help you explore further. "

"Google has a new desktop tool called Google Refine to help with cleaning up messy datasets, transforming them, and augmenting them with web-based data services. I could see this tool being used throughout the Lab in many areas: on field data, preparing science datasets for analysis, even run-of-the-mill business data manipulation. If you ever find yourself using a text editor or Excel to manipulate data, you might find this tool useful. Note that it comes in somewhat unusual packaging, because after downloading and installing the tool on your machine, you interact with it via a web browser. The link above has several videos that demonstrate its utility." (Paul Allen)

Google Chrome recently introduced Land Lines, a delightful new way to explore the gorgeous satellite images from Google Earth. Landlines invites users to discover new satellite images in two ways: Draw and Drag. With the Draw feature, visitors simply create a small doodle on their monitor or personal device. Next, Landlines, with the aid of machine learning, presents visitors with a satellite picture that contains this line or shape in some form: perhaps as a gridded street, the shape of a mountain range, or the curve of a lake. A caption in the bottom left hand side of the browser alerts readers as to what they are looking at and allows visitors to explore each area in more detail via Google Maps. With Drag, users can "create an infinite line of connective rivers, highways, and coastlines." Both modes of exploration offer innovative and highly enjoyable ways to see the world from one's own computer.

"Last week we made imagery from NASA's MODIS available as an overlay for Google Earth, which currently shows the extent of the oil spill through April 29, and we'll continue to add more imagery as it becomes available. We've also made radar images from ESA's ENVISAT available through this KML file. Below, you can see the progression of the spill over time."

"Global, zoomable time-lapse map... View stunning phenomena such as the sprouting of Dubai's artificial Palm Islands, the retreat of Alaska's Columbia Glacier, the deforestation of the Brazilian Amazon and urban growth in Las Vegas from 1984 to 2012 Using Google Earth Engine technology, we sifted through 2,068,467 images-a total of 909 terabytes of data-to find the highest-quality pixels (e.g., those without clouds), for every year since 1984 and for every spot on Earth. We then compiled these into enormous planetary images, 1.78 terapixels each, one for each year. As the final step, we worked with the CREATE Lab at Carnegie Mellon University, recipients of a Google Focused Research Award, to convert these annual Earth images into a seamless, browsable HTML5 animation. Check it out on Google's Timelapse website."

Google's global, zoomable time-lapse map illustrates land use change phenomena such as the sprouting of Dubai's artificial Palm Islands, the retreat of Alaska's Columbia Glacier, deforestation of the Brazilian Amazon, and urban growth in Las Vegas. "Using Google Earth Engine technology, we sifted through 2,068,467 images-a total of 909 terabytes of data-to find the highest-quality pixels (e.g., those without clouds), for every year since 1984 and for every spot on Earth. We then compiled these into enormous planetary images, 1.78 terapixels each, one for each year. As the final step, we worked with the CREATE Lab at Carnegie Mellon University, recipients of a Google Focused Research Award, to convert these annual Earth images into a seamless, browsable HTML5 animation."

"Tour Builder is a cool web tool that allows users to create narrative stories using text, graphics, pictures, videos and Google Maps.Tour Builder lets you pick the locations right on the map, add in photos, text, and video, and then share your creation. "

Google Earth's blog

"Tixik Heatmaps - Lets you add a basic heat map to a simple Google Maps display."

Environmentalists to use new Google 3D Trees mapping tool to preserve forests

Nice animated video of 2010 hurricane season in Google Earth

"Google has long offered anyone with an Internet connection a street-level view of cities and landmarks around the world, from the Golden Gate Bridge to the Roman Coliseum. Now, it's teaming up with a Brazilian environmental group to offer a 3-D, on-the-ground view of one of the planet's most remote areas: the hamlet of Tumbira in the center of the Brazilian Amazon. The goal is to show how people in the Amazon live - and educate the public about their effort to protect the forest."

Links to many Google Earth overlays

"Google Earth Engine brings together the world's satellite imagery-trillions of scientific measurements dating back more than 25 years-and makes it available online with tools for scientists, independent researchers, and nations to mine this massive warehouse of data to detect changes, map trends and quantify differences to the earth's surface. "

"Google is adding addresses along sections of the Amazon River and Rio Negro in Brazil to its Street View service."

journalist Fred Pearce reports on how the rapid spread of community-based, digital mapping is helping indigenous groups worldwide to claim ownership of their lands and protect them from logging and other outside development. From the Congo, to Guyana, to the Australian outback, local communities are increasingly using GPS technology and Google Earth to document their traditional forests, hunting areas, burial grounds, and important cultural sites. As Pearce writes, the aim is to produce maps that governments cannot ignore and that can assist local people in saving their homelands

Google Earth tour and video showing scientists tracking migration routes of Arctic Terns between Greenland and the Antarctic