Geog 107 – The Dynamic Earth

Winter 2017

Lab 1, Introduction to Google Earth Pro

Note, if you’re at home and haven’t installed GE Pro, goto http://www.google.com/earth/download/gep/agree.html - download it and install it. Note, it MAY (not sure this year) need a license key. If so, use your email and the key “GEPFREE” to sign in. Also, this lab is based roughly on one created at Southwestern College in Chula Vista, CA (couldn’t find an author).

First note, be sure to load Google Earth Pro (not the ole regular version). All labs this quarter will assume GE Pro.

Next – this lab is an intro to GE. You will be using GE for a host of labs this quarter (and I will be using it regularly in lecture). Get familiar with it. If nothing else, it’s pretty cool.

To hand in – you will be turning your lab answers in using Canvas. Just like the “In The News” readings, you will attach a word document to the lab assignment in Canvas. There is a separate document which has only the questions. Turn in that document with your answers. Do NOT turn in the whole lab with the answers inserted (that will result in a “zero” as a score for this lab).

From here, let’s get a handle on some of the basic features of GE.  Either version of GE will work. There will be a few questions scattered throughout.  Answer them as you get there.  Those answers will be what you turn in (on the separate answer sheet)!

GE is a friendly, 3D, internet-based geographic mapping application.  It was originally developed by Keyhole Inc., located in Silicon Valley. In 2004, Google bought Keyhole and released Google Earth in 2005.  The generic term for this is a Digital Earth (or Globe).  There are a couple of other similar applications out there, but none are as good or popular.

A bit of the basics:

There are three operational panels to the left of the screen, navigational controls to the right, and the map view in the middle.

The “look” control (upper right) controls the direction of view.  You can also change the angle of view.  Mess around and become familiar.

The “move” control is right below the look.  It allows you to change your position.  It works the same as clicking on the map and dragging.

The “pan/zoom slider” is below that.  Yup.  You can pan and zoom. You can also pan/zoom with the scroll wheel on your mouse.

To the left, you can search in the search panel.

Places is where you control adding and subtracting files, whether created by you or downloaded from the interwebz somewhere.  We’ll do a bit of this later.

Finally, in the bottom left are the layers you can turn on and off.  Mess around – there’s a freaking ton of cool stuff here.

Up top are a series of buttons.  Some we’ll get to, others not.  But it’s worth checking out.  More on some later as we go through a series of questions. You will hand in the answers to the italicized questions.

 Stuff to do:  

1.       Fly to Ellensburg by typing “Ellensburg, WA” into the search box and hitting enter (or the search button).  Welcome to paradise.

2.       From the layers section, be sure that borders and labels, places, photos, and 3D buildings are turned on.  Just for giggles.  Check out some of the photos.  A number are from moi (or students).  Be sure to check out Dean Hall and Science (they’re 3D – all the 3D buildings in Ellensburg were done by my students).  Bonus to anyone finding the epic photo of two great horned owls taken on campus.

3.       Question 1:  How many buildings at the rodeo grounds are in 3D?  If the buildings are connected in 3D, they are one building.

4.       Muck around a bit more and see what you can see. Including Dean Hall and Science in 3D. All the 3d models in Ellensburg were done by my students. Very cool.

Now, time to explore part of the world in 3D.

1.       Fly to the Grand Canyon by entering Grand Canyon in the search box.  Play with the look and zoom so that you can literally see in 3D and pan/zoom down the canyon.

2.       Now for the fun part.  And you may never have a geography prof tell you to play games.  Yup, time for the flight simulator.  Fire that up by going to Tools – Enter Flight Simulator.  I suggest you pick the little prop plane.  And read the help.  Thoroughly.  And perhaps take a few notes.  Then fire it up and fly.  Prepare to crash.  But with a little patience, YOU can FLY!

3.       Now, do the same for Seattle.  Make sure 3D buildings are turned on.  Buzz the Space Needle and EMP.  Just for fun.

4.       Now, Question 2 – write down your opinions regarding both what you can see in GE and the flight simulator. This should be a good half a page.

Now, it’s time to get down and personal.  Zoom to your house by typing the full address into the search bar.  Because you want to be able to get here quickly in the future, add a placemark (the pushpin button at the top).  Move it to the right spot (on top of your house) and give it a name.  You will see it appear in your “Places” part of the screen (middle left).  To prove you did this, take a screenshot and paste it into your word/answers document: Question 3).  Note, if you don’t know how to take a screenshot, look for the print screen button on your keyboard – hit it – then goto your answer sheet and hit paste. Alternatively, you could hit the save image button in GE, save your current view as a jpg, and insert that into your word document.

At the moment, this placemark is temporary and will go away when you quit GE.  However, you will have the option to save placemarks when you exit GE, but don’t if you’re not on your own computer.

Distance time. 

Question 4: Using the “show ruler” button (it looks like a ruler), tell me the straight line distance between your house and Dean Hall.  In miles.  And kilometers.

Let’s add directions to this distance.  Head back up to the search area.  You will see “get directions.”  Click on it. Type in your home address and “Dean Hall, Ellensburg, WA.”  Hit enter.  Question 5: what is the road distance from your home to Dean Hall.  In miles.

Just for fun.  And because data is born free.  Check out both Area 51 and Camp David (two different places).  The coordinates of A51 (copy/paste into search) are 37.249361, -115.812339 .  A search on “camp david” will get you to the presidential retreat. Question 6: What does Area 51 look like to you (shopping mall, lake, etc)? I expect a good paragraph here.

 But… even more important… where’s the nearest pizza joint to your house?????  Type “pizza Ellesburg” (or whatever town you happen to live in).  You will see a bunch pop up.  Question 7:  how accurate is this search?  Did they get the closest one to you?  Anything missing?

Because the Earth is boring.  Let’s goto Mars!  Goto View – Explore – Mars.  Check it out.  Now, search for Curiosity Rover – check out where it was, some pics, etc.  Just because it’s freaking cool. Question 8: What was the most interesting thing you saw on Mars? Provide a paragraph, plus.

Back to Earth...Clearly, there are a lot of good and fascinating Google Applications. If you are a biologist, there are many applications already developed for Google Earth (see Additional Google Earth Applications below). The same is true for geologists, geographers, astronomers, and historians. As noted at the beginning of this exercise, a lot of organizations now contribute to the Google Earth dataset.

One of the datasets we find in Google Earth is "Animal Tracking"... In the Layers window, click the "+" sign next to the "Ocean" layer. Scroll down and click on the "Animal Tracking" layer. Now, double click on the shark (in the layers section). On your map, you will see a shark icon off the coast of California. Click on the shark. This particular white shark has been tagged and is being monitored. It is a 400 cm (13 foot) long female white shark! On the top right hand corner of the pop-up window, click on the "Quickly" link. You are now under the sea following along with the moving shark! You can also look at the path the shark took by clicking on the “download track” link (below the “quickly” link.

Google Earth has done a nice job of incorporating bottom topography. You can now swim under the sea and get a nice perspective of the underwater topography. Try turning on a few of the other layers just to see some of the canned data. The shipwrecks are especially cool.

More Advanced Google Earth ApplicationsThe Bird Flu Example

Bird flu is a contagious, viral infection that can affect all species of birds. The contagious virus lives primarily in the respiratory system in the infected birds, and human infection occurs when people come into contact with infected birds or contaminated surfaces. There are thought to be millions of migratory ducks and wildfowl which carry the disease. Worldwide, according to the World Health Organization, more than 135 human infections of the virus have been recorded. On November 16, 2005, Nature Magazine's Senior Reporter Declan Butler thoroughly researched the Avian Flu outbreak and published the confirmed cases of Avian Flu in a Google Earth file. His avian outbreak map includes Human cases, and a time series of placemarks showing the progression of the flu over the proceeding18 months.

a) Follow the link http://www.nature.com/nature/googleearth/avianflu1.kml to open the avian flu file. (or just open it from the link on my home page) When prompted, click "Open". Google Earth will automatically launch. Head to Turkey.

b) In the “Places” panel, (if it is not already on) click on the box next to "H5N1 distribution maps;” By the way, you can also click on the link "Read me first" (found in the Places panel) to read about the Avian flu. You may notice that there were quite a few human cases that happened in the first several months of 2006 in the Middle East. For each case, you can "query" it to learn more information about that area. To do so, click on the symbol in the location that you are interested/

Question 9: Describe the geographic and seasonal patterns of the bird flu for both bird and human cases in the Middle East.

Question 10: According to the maps, what regions are the most impacted by the bird flu (Hint: Use the poultry density map)?

Google GalleryTurn off the Avian Flu layer by click on the box next to "H5N1 distribution maps;" in the Places panel. Next, go to: http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/feed/v1.0/ This takes you directly to the United States Geologic Survey (USGS) earthquake data page. Now, you can see earthquakes occurring all over the world in real time (note: This will map out earthquake occurrences and magnitudes during the past 7 days). Click on the Google Earth KML link. The next page gives you a couple of automatic feeds and some static ones. Fire up the past 7 days, colored by age. Check out what is happening in CA, the western US, and around the world. As this is a real-time feed, it’s a great site when it gets exciting somewhere in the world. Note, you may have to zoom in a bit to see the ‘quakes.

Question 11: Have any earthquakes occurred in California, OR, WA, Alaska, or Japan during the past week? Are they high magnitude, small magnitude, or a combination of everything?

Final Thoughts Regarding the Gallery of ApplicationsNow, a bajillion folks have spent time posting info on GE. Google has posted some of this. Wander by https://maps.google.com/gallery/?hl=en and see what’s there. Note – you will be looking at these within Google Maps (not Earth). At this time, you can get the data into Earth, but it’s not necessary for this lab. Browse these in Maps! Spend some time exploring the Gallery – be sure to view at least two of the different applications.

Question 12: Give a quick summary (both what you viewed and what you liked/disliked) of two apps.