Aircraft Caught by Google Earth

Leo, I promised you that I would send the attached image from Google Earth that Rory and I found while doing a virtual tour of the coast of Maine. We were following a rail line from a rail/barge terminal at Sear’s Island that we had actually visited earlier that day. Because Rory is so interested in trains, we often follow the tracks using Google Earth looking for images of trains. They are surprisingly easy to find, especially near larger cities.

This image was a complete surprise to me because it caught a jetliner flying over the spot we were looking at at the moment the Google image was taken from a satellite. The rail line we were “tracking” is just below it in the narrow cut in the trees.

I am persuaded the “ghost image” is not the shadow of the plane. First, it is not compatible in sun angle with the trees and poles on the ground at that moment. Second, it is too big; the shadow would be the same size as the plane, but it would be on the ground many thousand feet below. The contrails indicate that the airliner was at high altitude, not right on the deck. Third, it is a weird bluish tone; a shadow would be black. My guess is that because the plane is moving so fast, it produces an electronic echo in the imaging system.

Google Earth Street View Touring Another pass time on rainy days in Maine, is to use Google Earth’s “Street View” to find trains. We locate a busy area like a switch yard and then place the “Street View” icon person on a street nearby. We have to remember that the overhead satellite image was probably taken a long time ago to provide the background data for Google Earth. Any trains in that image will be long gone. The “Street View” pictures are taken from a truck with a camera cruising roads all over the USA. When we get lucky, there are full color pictures of trains crossing our street.

We now look for “time anomalies” in these images. Remembering that the camera truck and trains are both moving, you can sometimes see a train at the crossing that is mysteriously gone when the camera truck crosses the tracks. Sometimes, you see half a train ... or half a locomotive ... depending on where the camera’s frame rate caught it.

We once found a site with a big crane working and could see it’s boom and load in various orientations from different positions along the road. In some pictures it had two booms ... or none at all.

Our “Street View” Pictures I told you how much fun I had with Google’s “Street View” feature. Here are images of your house and the palms across the street copied from Google’s “Street View.” Find the “save image as” button at the top of their screen to capture a picture.

Note that the improvements to your front yard had not yet been completed.

Another view, from just up your hill, shows the neighborhood.

Here are these same tall palms I photographed last week when we visited you guys. They have grown.

Often, when the Google truck is passing by, people get photographed along with the houses and stores. This is Google’s view of Kristin and George’s home in New York. It caught their building supervisor sitting on the stoop talking to a neighbor and the tenant of the other apartment in their building just locking the front door after buying a gallon of milk. Too bad Kristin didn’t know the Google truck was going to be there at that minute or she could have gotten everyone out front for a family portrait.