I can't download Google Earth on my old computer.

For those who can, how close can you see? Could you see a 50lb yellow dog on short green grass?

Sue

Maybe but probably not. It would depend a lot on contrast and lighting. If it were right then maybe but still a long shot I would think.

HJ

Sue, it all depends on the quality of the photos that GoogleEarth uses.

In most urban areas the images are fairly high resolution and fairly current, from 2010 or 2009.

In rural areas the quality can drop off and the age of the images can range to 5 or 6 years ago, or older.

Because you live in Washington, I looked at the Space Needle in Seattle -- people are obvious but you can't tell much. Cars in nearby parking lots can be sorted by size and model -- SUV or pickup, sedan or compact. The image was taken May 15, 2010.

For comparison, I chose Valentine, Nebraska. The image can't handle zooming in nearly as much as Seattle can. And it's from Feb. 26, 2006. A few miles west of there, the aerial photos are from November 2003.

So to answer your question, if you live in an urban are, you can probably see a 50 pound yellow dog in short green grass -- but it is going to be a yellow blob.

and the pictures aren't usually "up to date." I think they're at best a couple months old. I mean, we're not going to be watching you drive to work one day via satellite.

yeah, i'd say detail wise, at best you'd see a motorcycle. Not be able to tell what kind probably.

Sue..i can see the light spot on my parking pad where i put in a cement patch,,3x3 maybe..also the Webber grill in the yard,but that just shows up as a dark patch and i can ID it because i know what and where it is.

If you can't run google earth the online google map goes nearly as far, you just don't have the control over the layers like in the program.
You can always go to the USGS web site and download an even higher res image of the area you want.

< I think they're at best a couple months old. >

I beg to differ. When you get the image open, go to the bottom left and turn on the layer that gives the photo information.

Okay. I had heard that Google Earth was in real-time, as opposed to Google Maps. I got the idea when that millionaire took off in his small plane from Reno and disappeared. Half the world was looking for him, and some kind of request had gone out for people to search via Google Earth.

My friend's dog has been missing for several months, but she keeps getting clusters of sightings. The dog appears to be traveling via the cleared areas under the power co. towers, and along the unused rail tracks.

Just wondering if this was an option we could put to use, but it sounds like no one could tell the difference between a yellow Rhodesian Ridgeback and a tan deer.

Thanks for all the info.

Sue

Some are pretty recent, some are years old, my parents farm hasn't been photographed since 2003. Other city areas are more often. Google gets the images from multiple sources such as navteq and the usgs as well as other state and local gov and even private surveying companies. The USGS has imaged the whole country via satalite then other entities contract airplanes to fly over with cameras and those are overlayed to make more up to date and accurate images.
The closest to real time is when there is a atural disaster and someone either gets the satalite to image it or flies an airplane over it, but those are usually for specific instances such as the coveraga of hurricane katrina but never make it down to google unless google were to then request the data dn process it and add it as an additional layer in earth. Your still talking about days worth of work.

That was the search for Steve Fossett. There were special efforts made to get the freshest data and specially link it to the search area within hours of a satellite pass. This was a special situation. GE is not by any means real time. (for instance, is there snow on the ground when you look at Atlanta with GE today?)

I spent many hours looking for Fossett on my computer. It was an interesting challenge but bore no fruit because his tube-and-fabric airplane had crashed under a small conifer and burned up. So what was left was blackened tubing, much like a burnt up chaise lounge. Visual resolution on the photos wasn't good enough to detect that. And if it was, the number of false targets would be overwhelming.

The false targets were overwhelming. There is an excellent documentry (trailer on Youtube) made on the Steve Fossett search in which the search coordinators state that they had so many people who used Google maps to search for Fossett and report false leads that the coordinators had to change their phone number. You can hear them briefly describe this starting at about 1:50 in the above Youtube link. There is also mention of it on Wikipedia's Steve Fossett entry

The documentary can be purchased online here. Scroll down to the "OTHER ONE-HOUR SPECIALS" section. Note that the documentary was made before Fossett's remains were discovered.