Google Earth now has updated aerials of OKC

[Platemaker]

Noticed this playing with Google Street view...

Eastbound I-40


Westbound I-40

[Dulahey]

Previous images were from 2003. I forget which month. I can't believe nobody ever notices the date in the bottom left corner? That's like the main thing you should look at on Google Earth.

[brianinok]

The pictures in my neighborhood were taken no earlier than late May 2009. I was out of town May 11-13 that year and while I was the tree in my front yard blew down. It took me about 10 days to get it removed, and the tree is non-existant in these photos.

[woodyrr]

Interesting:

I looked at Tinker and if you look at the main N-S runway (17-35), toward the south end, there is an E3 AWACS just leaving the ground. A little further south, there is "another" one and then "another". Altogether, I see seven of "them".

I put everything in "quotes" because they all have to be the same aircraft in succeeding stages of departure. Granted, I'm not a pilot, but certainly only in the absolute most dire of circumstances would AWACS planes take off in a manner even approaching that.

I wonder what anomaly would cause a photographic illusion like this.

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&sour...36435&t=h&z=15

I guess the photos that the satellites take are like individual shots knitted together, but I've seen planes in the air before, but I've never seen a series of "them".

[BB37]

Interesting:

I looked at Tinker and if you look at the main N-S runway (17-35), toward the south end, there is an E3 AWACS just leaving the ground. A little further south, there is "another" one and then "another". Altogether, I see seven of "them".

I put everything in "quotes" because they all have to be the same aircraft in succeeding stages of departure. Granted, I'm not a pilot, but certainly only in the absolute most dire of circumstances would AWACS planes take off in a manner even approaching that.

I wonder what anomaly would cause a photographic illusion like this.

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&sour...36435&t=h&z=15

I guess the photos that the satellites take are like individual shots knitted together, but I've seen planes in the air before, but I've never seen a series of "them".

I'm pretty sure it's the same aircraft, for a couple of reasons:

1. If you'll notice the stripe on the radome, it's in exactly the same position on each 'aircraft.' Those radomes rotate, and it's unlikely that 6-7 aircraft would have theirs parked in exactly the same position. If you'll look at the other E3s parked to the West of the North end of the runway, their radome stripes are in all directions.

2. It's highly unlikely that that many large aircraft would be allowed to take off in such a short span, because of vortex turbulence. Every plane after the first would be in danger. The northernmost two are only a couple-hundred feet apart; no way the USAF would let those big, expensive birds take off so closely spaced.

As to how this photographic anomaly occurred, I suspect the satellite taking the photos is in a polar orbit, going North to South as it passed overhead. The aircraft was taking off to the South, staying in frame between each exposure.

It was interesting to see 6 B-52s, a couple of B1s, and several KC135s parked on the tarmac, two of which were missing their tails!

[SkyWestOKC]

This phenomena is very common. It's the same aircraft. The wake turbulence off of each 707 (AWACS) is enough to crash the other behind it. 3 minutes of separation is required from the time the first aircraft begins it's takeoff roll to when the next one can start theirs. The planes in trail would be a ploom of smoke and crater in the ground taking off in that series. Same plane.

[adaniel]

In case anyone is interested Google has updated satellite imagery of Central Oklahoma. Have to hand it to the geniuses in Mountain View for keeping the imagery much more up to date than it was in the past. According to my Google Earth program these were taken on October 12. Among the highlights I found:
-The Devon Tower
-How far the 63rd/Western area has progressed, with Whole Foods, CHK, and Classen Curve
-The new outlet mall off I-40
-The Crosstown is nearly done
-The 235/44 Interchange and Morgan Road UPI
-New construction in Norman/OU

The effects of the drought are very obvious. Lake Hefner has a TON of dried lakebed...kinda depressing. Also, maybe its just me but it seems there's less residential development on the outskirts.

Just FYI, I believe it was announced that digital streetview imagery will be updated for both OKC and Tulsa next year.

EDIT: To see the updated images you may have to select the "earth" display option instead of the regular satellite view.

[Snowman]

Good to see the updates but it makes me wish it had an option for comparing the various passes they have.

Interesting:

I looked at Tinker and if you look at the main N-S runway (17-35), toward the south end, there is an E3 AWACS just leaving the ground. A little further south, there is "another" one and then "another". Altogether, I see seven of "them".

I put everything in "quotes" because they all have to be the same aircraft in succeeding stages of departure. Granted, I'm not a pilot, but certainly only in the absolute most dire of circumstances would AWACS planes take off in a manner even approaching that.

I wonder what anomaly would cause a photographic illusion like this.

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&sour...36435&t=h&z=15

I guess the photos that the satellites take are like individual shots knitted together, but I've seen planes in the air before, but I've never seen a series of "them".

They are very long passes of many shots stitched together. It should only happen when the satellite and the plane are moving in the same direction at similar speeds, which seems like it should be pretty rare.

[venture]

Good to see the updates but it makes me wish it had an option for comparing the various passes they have.

View > Historical View

It'll give you a scroll menu at the top to go back through all the different images over time...if that is what you are looking for.

[Just the facts]

Level is visible and so is the dirt work at Aloft.

[woodyrr]

Thanks for the heads up!

These images must have been uploaded after Monday, November 21. I flew out of Will Rogers that Monday evening and earlier in the day, I had looked at the airport on Google Earth to see where gate 14 was located. At that time, there was a WN 737 at gate 16 and nothing at gate 14. Now there are WN 737s at both gates 14 and 16.

[poe]

Nice to see the outlet mall and the elephant habitat at the zoo, too!

[stlokc]

Clearly we all know why this is so, but is anybody else amused to see how the river just sort of "disappears" once you cross under Eastern/MLK?

[OKCDrummer77]

From straight above, the Devon Tower doesn't look that tall until you realize that its shadow reaches the south tower of Leadership Square.

[venture]

Clearly we all know why this is so, but is anybody else amused to see how the river just sort of "disappears" once you cross under Eastern/MLK?

What? Make fun of our fake river? :-)

Would be nice if they would consider putting more dams up along it to help retain more water for when the city needs. Not to mention it would do wonders for improving the quality of the land it runs through. Granted I prefer a more natural look and not lined by stone.

[OKCisOK4me]

Wasn't there a plan to eventually dam up the river further upstream to create a natural like lake habitat for wildlife?

[Richard at Remax]

you can still see all the fire damage east of I-35 where all the trees are brown

[AAC2005]

Hmm...the zoom so tight, I can tell who the last person to drive my truck was...

[Bill Robertson]

I agree with sometime early April. Also based on the cars in our parking lot I would say 3 to 4 o'clock PM. At least in the area of SW 54th and Meridian.

[OKCDrummer77]

I agree with sometime early April. Also based on the cars in our parking lot I would say 3 to 4 o'clock PM. At least in the area of SW 54th and Meridian.

The imagery in Google Maps is from April 2010. However, Google Earth's imagery is dated October 12, 2011.

[Pete]

We should soon have new street view images from Google as they were redoing them recently.

[ou48A]

This is a great tool but several months ago I clicked on the satellite view and then zoomed in on my home. To my great astonishment I saw myself standing in my front yard. When I told my wife she said that if could be seen from outer space that it was probably time to drop a few pounds.

[OKCisOK4me]

Just imagine how clear you'd be on a NSA spy satellite!

[poe]

Looks like the satellite imagery is now on the normal Google Maps site, not just in Earth mode. Maybe they'll update the 45 degrees views after they release the updated street views.

[OKCNDN]

Check out the overpass on I-40 and Morgan road. That thing is going to be huge!