Google Earth - great way to track storms

[logybogy]

I'm not sure if any of you have downloaded Google Earth, but there is a really cool overlay someone made that allows real time radar from NOAA to be integrated into the google earth maps.

The overlay is on this site. Pick your state and then click on show after you have loaded Google Earth.

http://www.myjavaserver.com/~weathermap ... /index.jsp

If you don't know what Google Earth is, you can learn more about it here.

http://earth.google.com/index.html

[dhweather]

The folks at Google never cease to amaze me.

[patsmsg]

This is a pretty neat product. BTW, it can be download from here ==> http://desktop.google.com/download/earth/ and it is about 10MB, so if you are using dial-up, it may take a while.

[HurryKane]

I LOVE Google. If Google were a dude I'd marry him 100 times over.

[dhweather]

I LOVE Google. If Google were a dude I'd marry him 100 times over.

And I'd have an awesome brother in law

Kurrykane got me hooked on Google years ago - it ROCKS!!

[logybogy]

The potential for this to track hurricanes is really amazing. If they can do radar overlays on these maps, they can also do satellite and infrared...the possibilities are endless.

The 3D effects on this program really blow your mind.

Download and play with it for a bit. You'll really be amazed at what it can do.

[SkeetoBite]

Google announced in a press release on Friday that they are sharing their mapping technology with developers at no cost. However, their tiles will include advertising in the future.

They are deploying outstanding technology and maps, but one day very soon this public company will look to cash in via advertising on the maps. Can't blame them though.

[air360]

this is really really awesome. i had seen a program like this before but it cost alot of money even for the basic version. And with the ability to create overlays...think of the possibilities...i wonder if anyone here could make a little program or overlay of radar that would update and stuff...what makes the overlays so cool is the fact you can make them transparent...so you can still see the roads and buildings and everything even under hi res. great things can come of this

[HurricaneQueen]

[quote="logybogy"]I'm not sure if any of you have downloaded Google Earth, but there is a really cool overlay someone made that allows real time radar from NOAA to be integrated into the google earth maps.

The overlay is on this site. Pick your state and then click on show after you have loaded Google Earth.

http://www.myjavaserver.com/~weathermap ... /index.jsp

I was able to download "Earth" but I get an error message on weather maps: "Can not connect to the server". I don't have my Symantec Firewall activated. Do I have to do anything to Java? Any ideas?

Thanks and Happy 4th,
Lynn

Never mind. I got it to work. Thanks. It's really cool!

[msbee]

is it only valid for the USA?
and what are overlays?

[skysummit]

It looks like you turn the globe all the way around.

[kevin]

This is amazing. I found my neighborhood, my street, the river behind us, and a thousand other things. This isn't good just for weather, this is good clean fun. Try finding things around the world. I just got done touring Buenos Aires...

[msbee]

how did you find buenos aires?
I can't seem to figure out how to work the darn program.

[senorpepr]

how did you find buenos aires?
I can't seem to figure out how to work the darn program.

In the upper left corner there is a search box. Just type in Buenos Aires, Argentina and hit enter.

[msbee]

thanks!
that is cool!
now can someone explain how to use the overlays and the NOAA radar that logybogy was talking about?

[logybogy]

It's pretty simple. Once you have loaded google earth and you have it working.

You should go to that weather maps site in the link in my first post and go to the drop down menu on the bottom right hand side of the site and find your state and then click on "show."

A popup should come up then and you should allow it to open. After it should run automatically in google earth.

[logybogy]

Is anyone here very technically able? Cause there are some awesome potential overlays and storm2k could get a ton of publicity in the media and newspapers if they make them special for this site. This technology is that cool and it's the cutting edge.

We would probably need overlays for basic hurricane tracking. This would be such an awesome program for computer hurricane modeling! You could have all the models update right into google maps!

The amount of data at weatherunderground just opens the door to the possibilities of what could be done with this program.

http://www.weatherunderground.com/tropical/

[senorpepr]

I think you are onto something here. I've been playing around with this all night.

I put together two files for Google Earth. Please send some feedback.

First is called 03L. (Go to http://tropicalupdates.nhcwx.com/03L.kmz)

This has the wunderground SST chart and the NHC Model plots of 03L. Note... the SST chart is to scale in the Gulf of Mexico, but if you look further away from the Gulf of Mexico, there are sizing errors. You can see on the SST chart that some of the states don't line up as you get further away from the GOM.

Second is something I was playing with. This is something for the global trackers. Go to http://tropicalupdates.nhcwx.com/WMOCyclones.kmz

This imports the live official RSMC plots from the World Meteorological Organization and loads them up on Google Earth.

It isn't the cleanest image since it is several images loaded together, but it's pretty accurate in position.

Anyway... check it out. And if you haven't downloaded Google Earth, I suggest it. It's free and it's awesome.

[senorpepr]

...bump...

[GalvestonDuck]

Senorpepr -- what's the .kmz file? Can't be opened on my computer. Is it something that goes along with the Google Earth application?