Feb 2, 2009, 19:31 GMT
Brussels/San Francisco - Academics and armchair explorers were as of Monday offered a unique insight into the world's seas through a new release of Google Earth, which now also features satellite imagery, photos and videos of the planet's oceans.
The 5.0 version of the popular downloadable software was launched in San Francisco in a high profile event that included Nobel laureate Al Gore and renowned oceanographer Sylvia Earle, who was one of the main forces that led to the new features.
'You can not only zoom into whatever part of our planet's surface you wish to examine in closer detail, you can now dive into the world's ocean that covers almost three-quarters of the planet and discover new wonders that had not been accessible in previous versions,' said Gore, who also sits on Google's board.
In addition to the insight into the ocean depths, Gore hailed a new ability called Historical Imagery that allows users to see historical satellite images in order to track the changes that are taking place to the planet. He illustrated this with Google Earth images that showed the rapid melting of the Grinnell Glacier in Montana's Glacier National Park. 'This is an extremely powerful educational tool,' said Gore.
Another new feature is called tourins and allows users to create or view narrated illustrated tours of any area on the planet. The updated program also features Mars 3D, a collaboration with NASA that allows users to view high definition images of the red planet.
The project was initially presented in a number of European cities, including Brussels, where the European Commission is contributing by providing its own marine data.
'Google Ocean ... will further encourage the protection of the marine environment, which is such a vital and rich natural resource,' said the European Union's maritime affairs commissioner, Joe Borg.
Launched in 2005, Google Earth is a free internet application that combines satellite images and users' content about the planet.
Its latest version also offers users a virtual dive beneath the waves, allowing them to explore ocean beds, marine life and even shipwrecks, through 20 'layers' of information.
By clicking on 'placemarks' scattered around the seas, users can access additional photos and videos provided by, among others, the British Broadcasting Corporation, National Geographic and legendary French ocean researcher Jacques-Yves Cousteau.
'Anyone can discover in a few minutes what took me 50 years to understand,' said Earle, who is now the explorer-in-residence for the National Geographic Society.
Google officials admit that the parts of the ocean that currently offer any level of detail are limited, but hope that conservationists, institutions and individual users will update it with more content after its launch.
And while they would not disclose the costs involved in the two- year project, they acknowledged that Google Earth is designed to help 'drive web usage'. Google makes most of its money by receiving a share of the money paid by advertisers to publicize their products over the internet.
Other novelties included in the latest release of Google Earth include sea temperatures, a three-dimensional image of Mars and a 'virtual time travel' feature allowing users to track the progress of major building sites or the melting of glaciers.
Google Earth 5.0 can be downloaded at http://earth.google.com.
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