In the most recent release of Google Earth, an application/game has been introduced. This flight simulator program, which is hidden in the application by the way, allows for selection of different airplanes, airports, and locations to fly over and view the imagery in Google Earth that many have come to love. To view more information about the new addition, click on this blog posted on ZDNet.com.

To download the latest version of Google Earth - click here.

MapCruncher makes it easy to publish drawn-to-scale maps overlaid in an application using the Virtual Earth map control. Once you are familiar with the tool, it can take approximately ten minutes to generate a new tile layer.  Just find five to ten corresponding landmarks on your map and on the Virtual Earth map view, and MapCruncher will register your map to the global coordinate system, warp it to fit a Mercator projection, and generate a set of image tiles that can be seamlessly layered on top of Virtual Earth map control's standard road, hybrid, or aerial imagery. It even makes a sample HTML page for reference.

To download MapCruncher (Beta) click here.

Google has recently released information about Google Earth specifically targeting Educators. Here is an excerpt from there site:

"Google's satellite imagery-based mapping product, represents, in essence, the whole world on a student's computer. It enables users to "fly" from space to street level to find geographic information and explore places around the world. Google Earth is more like a video game than a search engine – it's basically a 3D model of the entire planet that lets you grab, spin and zoom down into any place on Earth. Different versions offer tools for measuring, drawing, saving, printing, and GPS device support."

To find out more about Google and Education support for Google Earth - click here.

Export to KML is an extension developed for ArcGIS 9.x by the City of Portland, Bureau of Planning. The extension allows ArcGIS users to export GIS data in “keyhole markup language” (KML) format for viewing in Google Earth. Any point, polyline, or polygon dataset, in any defined projection, can be exported. Features can be exported as either 2-dimensional features, or 3D features "extruded" upwards by an attribute or z-value.

This could be a great addition to your projects, especially for presentations!

To download this script: click here!

For installation instructions (very simple by the way): click here for the pdf. Make sure you have administrative rights to install.

Give it a try and tell us about it in the forums!

Here is a great article about GIS, ESRI, and the California fires written from Directions Magazine:
Geographic information system (GIS) software and services from ESRI are helping local, state, and federal agencies with multiple tasks surrounding the recent firestorms in Southern California. Similar to previous efforts for the Zaca fire as well as the large-scale California fires of 2003, ESRI is providing staffing, ArcGIS software, and other resources. More than a dozen wildfires in Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Diego, San Bernardino, and Ventura counties have resulted in half a million evacuees, hundreds of thousands of acres burned, and thousands of properties destroyed.

To read more about this topic click here to go to Directions Magazine.

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