Google Earth gets assisted by new satellite

Sure, you may be able to waste hours on end controlling Google Earth imagery with your Wiimote, but you can plan on killing days -- nay, months -- after a brand new "high-resolution satellite" launches on Tuesday in an attempt to "boost the accuracy of its satellite images and flesh out its archive." The new craft, labeled WorldView I, will team up with DigitalGlobe's existing Quickbird sat to nab "over 600,000 square kilometers of imagery each day," and it should also "provide far more accurate data." Those still sitting around with gaped jaws can even head to Boeing's website to watch the launch live, and if all goes as planned, WorldView II should join the ever-growing party in late 2008.

[Dias @ Sep 17th 2007 5:33AM]

So now Google has even their satellites...

I wonder what kind of corporation it will become in 10-15-20 years.

[I LOVE THE CAPS LOCK KEY @ Sep 17th 2007 5:34AM]

A global empire. Pun intended.

[NiGhTmArE @ Sep 17th 2007 6:17AM]

Umbrella Corporation.

[-Tj- @ Sep 17th 2007 7:31AM]

Skynet.

[L. Cyphre @ Sep 17th 2007 8:22AM]

The Brotherhood of Google?

[AlexP @ Sep 17th 2007 9:56AM]

Been playing C&C lately?

[Alexander @ Sep 17th 2007 10:45AM]

Google has had their own satellites for years now, ever since they bought out Keyhole (which became Google Maps).

I personally welcome our search-engine overlords. May they reign forever.

Gmen.

[g.thompson @ Sep 17th 2007 11:34AM]

This story is Engadget getting hold of entirely the wrong end of the stick. In fact this satellite has nothing to do with Google Earth -- this article quite wrongly gives the impression that it is Google's mission -- but it is a panchromatic-only (black & white) instrument aimed at the defence market. So you won't be seeing much of its imagery -- certainly not on Google Earth. The Keyhole Google bought has nothing to do with the ultra-secret Keyhole satellites (KH-11 etc), operated by your own beloved U.S. Govt, which are the size and cost of Hubble (and you won't be seeing their imagery any time soon, either.)

[LondonConsultant @ Sep 17th 2007 5:43AM]

Maybe Google will make the camera controllable from within Google Earth, like one hell of a remote live webcam...

[mark @ Sep 17th 2007 6:01AM]

maybe not

[Jonathan Minnick @ Sep 17th 2007 6:05AM]

any idea as to what time of the day it will be launched, so we know what time to go over to the Boeng page and watch it? ( http://www.boeing.com/defense-space/space/bls/missions/worldview-1/ )

[stoo @ Sep 17th 2007 6:33AM]

Date: Tuesday, September 18, 2007 At 08:00
Duration: 1 Day.
Launcher: Delta 2 7920
Payload: Worldview 1
Launch Site: Vandenberg

[KC @ Sep 17th 2007 6:51AM]

Hehehe, this is the perfect time to put a sign on the top of my house. I'm not sure what yet, but it's gonna be awesome.

[Zach @ Sep 17th 2007 6:58AM]

"Martians, land here"

At least that's what Calvin did...

[TeddyN @ Sep 17th 2007 6:52AM]

Let me know when I can watch a live high-resolution satellite stream of everywhere in the world using Google Earth.

[g.thompson @ Sep 17th 2007 11:53AM]

Never. High-resolution satellites are in low earth orbit (QuickBird's is 450 km) and have their target in view for only a few minutes. The revisit interval is several days. The sensor scans the earth as the satellite flies -- more like a fax machine than a camera -- in a swath 16.5 km wide. A single QuickBird scene can be over 2 GB in size. In theory you could probably get live video from a geostationary satellite, but from 36,000 km the resolution will be in tens or hundreds of metres, not centimetres. Using a constellation of birds reduces the revisit, but for continuous monitoring I'd guess you would need hundreds of them and you'd still only get one shot per pass. Anyway, try working out the cost of continuous live video monitoring at say, 50 cm resolution, of all the Earth's land masses. At HD quality, each frame would be 2 megapixels and would cover only 860 x 540 metres. It wouldn't even be very interesting most of the time.

[Zach @ Sep 17th 2007 6:58AM]

Next up, Google invents the memory hole.

[Stine Kristiansen @ Sep 17th 2007 7:15AM]

Yeah but where is the list of places that will be blessed with updated images from this sattelite? Oslo, Norway sure could need a flyby. :-)

[Alexander @ Sep 17th 2007 10:08AM]

Ja.

[humpty @ Sep 17th 2007 7:28AM]

Is it just me, or are large parts of China blacked out in Google Earth/maps?

[CraigS @ Sep 17th 2007 8:24AM]

It's night time there.

[splogue @ Sep 17th 2007 8:26AM]

The article seems to say that the satellite launches tomorrow, but comes online late 2008? Did I misread that, or does it really take a year to integrate it in with the rest of the satellites?

[Scott D @ Sep 17th 2007 9:04AM]

WorldView 1 launches tomorrow. WorldView 2 is expected to come online 2008.

[g.thompson @ Sep 17th 2007 8:33AM]

Launch is at 11:35 a.m. PDT (18:35 GMT). http://www.boeing.com/defense-space/space/bls/missions/worldview-1/ on September 18.

WV-1 is panchromatic only and aimed at the defence market so don't expect to see too much imagery on Google Earth (No, it's not Google's satellite). At best it should free up QuickBird for more civilian work

[CeeJay @ Sep 17th 2007 9:18AM]

Panchromatic images is what Google Earth displays.
Who cares if the satellite can't capture infra-red or ultra-violet or other spectrums ?
It's enough that it captures the visible light spectrum.

[g.thompson @ Sep 17th 2007 10:08AM]

Panchromatic means black and white, or rather, grayscale. QuickBird imagery, which is the 60 cm natural colour imagery you see on Google Earth (look for the DigitalGlobe copyright), comes in five bands: 4 multi-spectral (3 visible, 1 near-IR) at down to 2.4 metres pixel size and 1 pan at down to 60 cm pixel size. The high-res. colour imagery you see comes from combining the colour of the multi-spectral bands (using the visible light bands for - roughly - natural colour) with the geometry of the pan band. The pan band stretches down into near-IR so getting the colour right is tricky.

WorldView-1 has only panchromatic, at 50 cm, no colour. WorldView-2 will be multi-spectral. There is an introduction to high-res. satellite imagery here: http://www.eurimage.com/faq/faq.html.

[Jason Schloer @ Sep 17th 2007 10:10AM]

ceejay, panchromatic means black and white. Google does use a lot of pan sharpened multi spectral, but WorldView-1 is not capable of that. WolrdView-2 is what google would really be interested in. As for how long it will be before you can even see WorldView 1 images, expect about 3-4 months of general shake down. Positioning, accuracy, and image verification all take a while.

[Doug @ Sep 17th 2007 9:46AM]

stoo said:

Date: Tuesday, September 18, 2007 At 08:00
Duration: 1 Day.
Launcher: Delta 2 7920
Payload: Worldview 1
Launch Site: Vandenberg

"At 08:00" -- What time zone? Is that UTC? PDT? Other?

[Jaylord @ Sep 17th 2007 11:05AM]

I didn't actually check, but since Vandenberg AFB is in California I assume that's the time zone that would be used.

[g.thompson @ Sep 17th 2007 11:16AM]

Launch is at 11:35 a.m. PDT (18:35 GMT)

[stoo @ Sep 17th 2007 2:06PM]

It didn't actually say on the page I was looking at, but others have narrowed it down already :)

[tiuk @ Sep 17th 2007 10:22AM]

So, will we be able to zoom in further than the currently available maximum level, or will more areas just have the current high res standard?

[Pork Rind @ Sep 17th 2007 11:32AM]

The current maximum level is aerial photography, not satellite. I doubt they're going to be beating that standard for a while.

[tiuk @ Sep 17th 2007 9:56PM]

Ahh, that makes sense. Thanks for clearing that up.

[Maxx @ Sep 17th 2007 12:16PM]

Too bad most of Googles high and mightly maps are 5-6 years old or more.

[R.Schmitz @ Sep 17th 2007 4:06PM]

So how many satellites does Google have in orbit dedicated to Google Earth? Because at 600,000 sq/km per day, it's going to take roughly 850 days for a single satellite to complete immagery for the entire planet (~510 million sq/km). 5-10 satellites maybe? Plus with older satellites, the imagery wouldn't be as good as this new one going up tomorrow. Even with only 5 in orbit, it would take around 6 months to complete the planet. No wonder Google's maps are so outdated...

[Jake @ Sep 17th 2007 5:03PM]

Hey guys, check out Spaceflight Now for coverage, that's what all the engineers in the control room do.

Also, if you live in Los Angeles, drive up to Vandenberg to see the launch live from just a few miles. Not nearly as impressive as watching the Space Shuttle launch, but damn impressive still.

http://www.spaceflightnow.com/delta/d326/status.html