ABSTRACT
In the age of Google and smart phones, there is a lot that an individual can do using readily available public remote sensing resources. Many satellite images are available free from NASA or the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) EROS Data Center. Individuals can download Google Earth at little or no cost and view any place on Earth, including the oceans. Many areas covered by Google Earth also have digital topography such that one can now do a virtual “y through” of an area of interest. Google Earth and Google Maps® have layers of data, a virtual geographic information database, which can be turned on and off as needed. These auxiliary datasets include roads, political boundaries, buildings, services, even volcanoes, and snapshots contributed by the public. Yahoo!® Maps and Google Maps® offer not only maps but also satellite images of areas of interest, and map-satellite merged images at a variety of magnications. These applications will take a starting and ending location and plot the shortest route between the two based on distance and/or travel time and provide directions. Yahoo!® Maps even provide trafc speeds at any given time. Google Maps® has a “Street View” feature that allows the user to see what is at a location at street level, and pan the camera 360°, over many areas of the world.
