Kind: captions
Language: en
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foreign
and welcome back to this series on how
to do open source investigations from
home I'm Ben and this is part 16 so
let's get started
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in this session I really want to share
with you my top five favorite Tools in
Google Earth
I hope that by sharing these tours with
you that you find them useful in
whatever subject you are exploring
whether it's for a hobby research or
your job
what's so cool about this stuff is that
it's free just like these tutorials and
no matter who you are or where you are
all you need is a computer and the
internet to do this stuff
so let's get started with my favorite
number one tool on Google Earth which is
the historical imagery function
as an example to show this I'm going to
take you to the city in Sudan cartoon
Google Earth's historical imagery
function which is available in the
downloadable browser version only
allows you to view historical imagery or
previous satellite images that have been
shared on Google Earth by simply
clicking this wheel that you can see up
the top here you can change the
satellite view from what you would
normally see on perhaps Google Maps or
the standard View
which is from October 2022 and you can
scroll back in time to view past
satellite images you can see the date up
the top when I click backwards and you
can see that change a good indication of
that is the movement of the planes on
the apron and tarmac that you can see on
the screen here
this tool is extremely helpful in
identifying changes on Earth different
objects at different locations at
different times
for example if I take you a little bit
north of this location
we can see examples from some of the
Grim events that happened at the
protests in Sudan
if we scroll back in time we can see
lots of little tents and Marquees and
buildings
which previously were not along this
road before
in April 2019 we can see what appears to
be people
tents different areas
there's even more a month later
and then if we go forward we can see
that quite clearly here
and even up here as well
but then moving forward in July we can
see that that area has now has since
been cleared of those tents and those
people are gone after a grim event
happened here
this is the importance of being able to
view historical satellite imagery and
why it's so powerful in Google Earth
another example that we can see
is in myanmar's Yangon
if we have a look at the city of Yangon
we know that in February 2021
Myanmar went through a coup and
significant events unveiled around those
dates and have since that event
if we move to those dates around that
event we can see some signs of that
activity in the streets of Myanmar in
Yangon
for example
previously
this mural was not available on the road
but we can see pro-democratic slogans
painted into the road along here
while we see those slogans there if we
have a look in other areas for example
we can even see
lots of people where protesters were
gathering
you can see lots of them on the road
along here and built up along here where
the military had parked its vehicles and
you can see them on both sides in
another example this time from Benghazi
in Libya's East we can have a look at
the airport out near Benghazi and see
changes for example I'm looking at
satellite imagery from September 2022
of the airport here
and if we scroll back in time
uh going back through May March
what we can actually see is
in November 2021
we can see the military preparing for a
very large parade
here are the soldiers on the apron of
the runway here
and we can see lots of vehicles lined up
more people over here we can even see
different types of vehicles as well some
of them appear to be pulling boats
uh other ones over here types of even
darker vehicles and things like that so
you can see the power of being able to
have a look at past satellite imagery as
well as more up-to-date satellite
imagery than what's generally available
on Google Maps and that's why this is
one of my favorite tools on Google Earth
the second tool that I use a lot of and
I recommend other people use is a ruler
function very simple but allows you to
measure specific areas
so say for example I wanted to look at
each size of these boxes I could
probably guess how big they would be
just based on the satellite image
but what we have is a ruler on Google
Earth and I've clicked that function at
the top there and it allows me to select
on the map a specific point and drag and
have a look at a specific line so this
line that I've made in this box that you
can see here
is 10 meters or just over 10 meters long
and appears to be
just under 10 meters so in between 9 and
10 meters wide as well
this tool is actually really helpful
when looking at Vehicles so for myself
when I'm identifying planes on a Tarmac
Vehicles like tanks or vessels or ships
for example this boat that's been
dragged here is around about 10.6 meters
that allows me to verify just how large
that might be
and the model of that vessel or the
model of that boat let's go to another
location nearby here but this time in
Egypt in a place called City barani
specifically there's an airport just
south of the town
by using the ruler we can have a look at
dimensions of things that we might not
actually know what they are
for example the Egyptian Air Force has a
number of helicopters parked out on the
apron here and so we're able to take
measurements to have a look at this
helicopter which is around about 16.5
meters long but we can also have a look
at for example the size of its
propellers we have the number of others
here available so for example these much
darker helicopters a little bit shorter
around 14.5
14.6 meters long
we could actually have a look on
Wikipedia under the Egyptian Air Force
and have a look at what helicopters they
have to see if they match those
Dimensions furthermore we can even have
a look at much longer objects as well
for example this Runway is quite large
and quite long to measure it we could
simply draw a line right along the
runway we get that in meters but we can
also get that in kilometers it looks
like it might be a three kilometer long
Runway I'm going to take you now to a
location you're probably more familiar
with which is Manhattan in New York
specifically many of you are probably
aware of the Central Park in Manhattan
we can actually have a look not only for
the length of each side of that which
seems to be just over four kilometers
but we can actually measure uh the
specific area of a
so for example if I was to create a
polygon I select my corners
and we can see that the perimeter
appears to be
probably around about 10 square 10
kilometers
the area appears to be
we can do that in square kilometers
around about 3.4 square kilometers
another interesting feature of the ruler
is the fact that not only can you do a
point measurement from one side of the
part to another being for 4.1 kilometers
but you can also have a look at the
elevation profile
to see what the elevation would be like
so for those of you that are into
running like myself you can actually
measure and identify where there might
be nearby Hills
so for example there's different
elevations this one specifically you can
see that the elevation dips a bit likely
because you're trudging through water
here at the moment
but with different elevation spots comes
different areas for example for those
Runners that want to get those Hills you
can find little climbs and things like
that in specific areas
this is also quite useful for people
that do long hikes where you can draw a
point-to-point measurement or a hiking
route and have a look at that elevation
profile which is quite a useful feature
moving on now to my third favorite thing
about Google Earth and it definitely has
to be the 3D buildings while there are a
number of new mapping applications
coming out with 3D buildings we also
have Apple Maps Google Maps has really
good 3D functions my favorite type of 3D
features
are always in Google Earth specifically
because the availability of being able
to pan around so clearly to any point of
view that you want
this tool becomes super useful when
people are geolocating content in
specific cities where there is where
this is available
so for example if you were to be looking
at
photos that have been taken from
Apartments over this main Park area here
you might even be able to find what
level they are taken on based on that
elevation
you can also find some very difficult to
see areas just by flying or driving up
some of these streets and being able to
appear into some of the sides of
buildings to be able to match some of
those views specifically this is such a
useful tool for anyone that is into
exploring urban cityscapes urban areas
or just wanting to have a look around
specific cities around the world but 3D
imagery is not only available in main
cities
it's also available in some of the other
greatest features of the world mountains
I'm going to take you to one of my
favorite mountain ranges in the US which
is the El Capitan Mountain
given this mountain range is quite
popular so it's quite detailed when you
have a look at some of its cuts and and
features in there you can see some of
the jagged rocks along here as well as
over the other side you can see how well
formed some of these areas are even with
this kind of little bit poking out right
here
other areas don't have that sort of
capability and are not as detailed
but are quite useful to look at
for example let's go to casala in Sudan
this area is likely less looked at than
perhaps El Capitan or Manhattan
but equally has a 3D profile of its
mountains which is very useful for
example gear locations in order to have
a look at this Rocky outcrop here but
you can see that even though there are
Jagged pieces on this it seems to be
quite well-rounded and not accurate of
the jaggy pieces there but it's still
quite useful in referencing for example
videos that may have been filmed from
here or photos that may have been filmed
from here and to identify what angle
they've been filmed at to identify that
exact location where they've been taken
moving on from point three I'd like to
share with you another really useful
feature that I use a lot which is image
overlays
what I'm talking about here is adding
images into Google Earth
so for example here is maxar's open data
program which allows free maxar
satellite imagery of specific events
that have happened in the world
primarily disasters or environmental
events that have happened
so for example you can scroll down and
start to view specific events
like data on Indonesia's earthquake in
2022 hurricane Ian Fiona
flooding in Sudan The Gambia Kentucky
Pakistan Bangladesh and and more
activities as you can see lots of these
are available to freely download there
is a lot of satellite imagery available
here from maxar which is very simple and
easy to use you can simply click on the
information icon
to see what satellite tile this place
covers and what that image might look
like and then you can simply click
download to open them up in Google Earth
is very straightforward all you have to
do is drag and drop Google Earth opens
up KML files kmz files Dot geotiff and
Dot Tiff files and you can open them up
quite simply for example here is one
that I've downloaded from maxar and you
can see how clear that satellite imagery
is which gives an updated view of relief
efforts after specific flooding came
through an area this is really useful to
use as some areas just are not updated
as much as others with satellite imagery
and it's very crucial to open those up
this sort of imagery is
extremely important and such a very
useful tool especially in areas where
satellite imagery is not as regularly
updated as say for example large cities
to show you what I mean by that let me
take you to a place in Myanmar where I
have uploaded a planet satellite imagery
tile so for example if we scroll in on
this specific area and then open up this
planet tile we can see what this area
looks like as of November 2022.
this area was important as I was
identifying or looking at and further
analyzing specific homes and Villages
that had been burnt to the ground
and we can see examples of this along
here in these satellite images
where the remains of burnt homes can be
seen in this satellite image in
comparison to the previous one
from
by using these in Google Earth it allows
us to identify specific events that have
happened but in the wider context of a
complete map and this gets me on to the
last point which is probably one of the
most important benefits of Google Earth
is the fact that you can annotate Maps
so for example staying with this
satellite imagery that we have here
I'm able to annotate this map
and draw markings on it
so for example I can add a simple pin to
say burned
Village but what I can also do
is even add a polygon to this area
just outlining the border of the area
I'm giving this a bit of color making
the outline red and I can continue
filling in this area now this is
extremely useful because if you consider
me doing this over and over again it
gives you an incredible insight into
events that are happening on the ground
and being able to capture the history of
that with those annotations
those annotations are not alone you can
also Import and Export data so say for
example if I did this a number of times
and I wanted to share this with an
organization or a group working on
Myanmar I could export this file and
send it to them so that they can open up
the same data in their own Google Earth
as well but I can also import
information as well to import
information what we're looking for is
things such as kmls or kmzs this is the
type of file that opens up in Google
Earth with all of the pins and polygons
attached so say for example I wanted to
look at active fire data in specific
areas around the world
I've ran through this before in another
YouTube tutorial but we have something
called NASA firms or fire information
for resource management system this is a
very useful resource to allow us to
collect data on heat signatures that
have been picked up on the Earth's
surface and we can actually download
those in a KML format and you can see
that the simple collection it even says
Google Earth KML
where you have a simple collection of
worldwide Canada Alaska USA other areas
as well I'm going to have a look at for
example Australia and New Zealand I can
have a look at the last 24 hours of
activity
and simply just download a KML so I've
downloaded that KML and I'm going to
drag that right into my Google Earth
you'll see that zoomed to Australia and
already you can see those pins of fires
these are small icons that have
identified where heat signatures may
have occurred in Australia and you can
see there's a date on those so this one
was from the 1st of January 2023 at 0 to
28 UTC time and you can even follow up
with more information on those as well
and you can see that there's more fires
in the East and some of those Greener
areas in Australia
it's also important you should always
verify this information
as they might just be heat signatures
given off specific areas as well
but this is just such an easy way to
import that data
to have another look at a different type
of data that you can import it's very
easy to search for a lot of this data so
for example I've done a simple Google
search and I've done a tutorial on how
to do these simple file searches but
essentially you can just type in file
type KML or even kmz which is Google
files and your keyword before it so I
wanted to have a look at something to do
with dogs and kmls and I found this
really A cool one which is around
locations of dog bins from open data
Scotland
so I had a look at this one
let's again I'll drag that into my
Google Earth
and we can see what sort of data that
contains
so what I met with here is a number of
pins from specific areas
where there are reported locations of
dog bins so bins uh probably for uh
dropping things like dog poo in
we could even perhaps verify some of
these locations just by having a look
uh at Google Street View to see if
there's indeed one under this tree and
it might be the case that there is one
there so it's really useful to have
access to that sort of uh information so
that we can uh really understand a
little bit more about our area but also
just gather that geospatial data that we
usually wouldn't have access to but now
have and that is one of my favorite
tools to use in Google Earth so there
you have it in this session I've shared
with you my top five favorite tools to
use in Google Earth these are ones that
I use quite regularly
and hopefully you'll be able to use them
too or you'll find them useful in your
research or you're exploring I really
hope you enjoyed this session and if you
have any favorite tools that you use in
Google Earth a lot please leave them in
a comment down below so that we can
share them more with the community and
I'll see you in the next session
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