Big
Brother is watching you
(and your motorglider)
Text: Webmaster Leo
Amazing possibilities of Google Earth.
1984
Somewhere in 1982 I first read the novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, written by
George Orwell.
It was one of the first books I finished reading right until the last chapter
without being bored. Though the story is written in 1948, it’s very
fascinating and frightening at the same time to read about an omnipresent
state, where the ever-present, all-seeing Big Brother enforces perfect conformity
among its citizens.
Several words and concepts that are introduced in the book found their way
into modern English language, just think of the terms “Big Brother”,
“Room 101” and “The thought police”.
Except from the language, also modern day technology shows striking similarities
with those in the novel. Big Brother is watching your steps almost everywhere
nowadays.
Even when you’re reading this article several parties (like your internet
service provider) can register you are doing so.
| On one
side this can be a very scary thought, on the other side it’s
nothing new. Hundreds of years ago, gossip and social control where
the way people “spied upon eachother”, nowadays it’s
a more technical way in which other people look over our shoulders.
Since I grew up in a time when the first homecomputers like Philips P2000T (1981), Sinclair ZX Spectrum and Commodore 64 (both 1982) found their way to the market, the scary part of modern day technology doesn’t really scare me anymore. |
 Commodore C64 with 64 kilobytes of RAM !!! |
From
time to time some new technology still surprises me, especially educational
software is warmly welcomed by your webmaster.
One of my latest “discoveries” in this area is the Google-freeware
program “Google Earth”.
Some students in my class last year already asked me about my thoughts about
it, but it wasn’t until recently that I downloaded the 12 Mb file needed
to install the software.
What is Google Earth ?
Basically “Google earth” is a free-of-charge, downloadable virtual
globe program. It maps the entire earth by pasting images obtained from satellite
imagery, aerial photography and GIS on a 3D-globe.
The degree of resolution on the presented images differs from location to
location, but most places are available at at least 15 meters of resolution.
This enables the user to spot buildings and other large structures almost
everywhere. However, there are many locations available in a higher degree
of resolution. Cars and other “meter large” objects can be seen
with no problem in several large cities.
Navigating around the globe is no problem either. Google Earth allows users
to search for addresses (for the USA, Canada, and UK only), enter coordinates,
or simply use the mouse to browse to a location.
Screenshot
of Google Earth viewing Europe, Northern Africa and Western Asia from an altitude
of a little bit more than 9000 km..
In the lower left corner you can choose which information is displayed on
the map.
In the upper left corner a list of personal and global places of interest
can be seen.
Navigating can be done with the panel below the main window.
The
program also has a multitude of other user-controlable features that can be
turned on or off at one’s wishes.
The geographical length and longitude of your mouse's pointer and the altitude
of the observer is shown below the map.
All sorts
of data and information can be shown on an image of almost any location on
earth. Borders, road names and numbers, city names, shops, money terminals,
schools etc. etc. Sometimes it’s just amazing what a load of information
is available for some regions. However, the amount of info also differs from
place to place, or from country to country. It’s no problem for instance
to show a pizza-hut in a rural German area, but when crossing the Dutch-German
border all pizza boys seem to disappear as melting snow in the hot summer
sun.
Google
Earth originally was introduced under the name Eart Viewer by a firm called
Keyhole Inc. Google acquired the company in 204 and renamed the software into
Google earth in 2005. Today (May 2006) the software can be downloaded for
use on a PC running Mac OS X 10.3.9 and above, or Windows 2000 or XP. A Linux
version has been announced for this year.
Google Earth also has the option to tilt the map and view a 3D-version of
the terrain. It’s amazing what you can see in the grand Canyon or above
the Himalaya! For some U.S. cities there’s even a 3D-skyline available
showing the major buildings in the area.
People using the applications can add their own data and make them available
for worldwide use.
 |
People always look for things they already know. Your webmaster is no exception to that rule. Immediately after downloading Google Earth the first thing I checked to see if I was able to spot my own house. And the answer was: yes, it is possible to see my house! On the left you can see the neighbourhood I live in, with in the upper right corner my home (within the circle). The large building in the upper left corner is a local primary school. Also visible on the image are several cars. One of my neigbours on the South side last year built a new veranda behind his house. Today this veranda has a roof that is covered with greenish looking moss, but as you can see last year, when this satellite image was made, the roof still was shining in brilliant white. |
The
smallest details that can be seen on the original image are (the shadows)
of several chimneys. All of these shadows are no larger than 1 meter!
Please note that due to the jpeg compression algorithm used for publishing
the images on this website some detail has been lost.
On the left you can see Google Earth's view zoomed to an altitude of 4,26
km meter, showing Maastricht
Aachen Airport (EHBK).
On the right a detailed image as seen at an altitude of 430 meter.
And indeed, a large passenger plane is visible.
It's probably a plane that just returned from a favourite summer holiday destination.
The stairway is still standing next to the plane.
The round circle exactly North of the plane's nose is the airport's control
tower.
The building in the upper right corner is the passenger terminal.
Note that on the A2 motorway, West of the airport the small white lines separating
the driveways also can be seen. These lines are no wider than 20 centimeters!!!
| The next
step I took was to take a look at Henk's home base, Geilenkirchen Nato
Air Base (ETNG). I expected to see some scrambled images, because it's a military base, but none of that! And again the amount of visible details turned out to be a big surprise. The image is a total view on ETNG, as seen from an altitide of about 6 kilometers. When zooming in on the original image (right upper corner), several Boeing E-3A (AWACS) planes can be seen standing South of the runway. Because of the relative light colour of the ground, their shapes are difficicult to spot, but the shadows of the giant circualar radar they are carrying on their backs can easily be seen. |
|
 |
Looking at an altitude of 440 meter in the upper left corner the hangar of Henk's motorglider (D-KFDI) can be seen without difficulties.
This building is approximately 14 meter wide and 32 meter long, according to the measurement tool included with Google Earth. We have to check it someday! (edit; we checked it one day after writing this article; true length was 30,6 meter and width was 15 meter)
Individual trees and shadows are no problem either.
In the upper right corner you can spot a small building.
It's the club home of Aero Club LSV Geilenkirchen, of which Henk is a clubmember.
The image surely is not made on a weekend day. Apparently it's a very sunny summer's day and if this would have been a Saturday or Sunday there surely would have been some plane visible in front of any of the hangars.
|
 |
 
 |
From
left to right:
1. Runway 06, according to Google Earth's measurement tool, the white line
crossing the runway has a length 29,97 meters, exactly corresponding with
the official 30 meters as stated on the website of Dahlemer Binz !
2. Some sheep or cows grazing in a green meadow just South to the airfield.
3. Two planes near the main building. Wingspan according to Google Earth's
measurement tool approximately 10,50 meters.
4. A glider plane !!!!! Yes
yes yes. A glider spotted with Google Earth in the most Eastern corner of
Dahlemer Binz airfield. Wingspan approximately 26,20 meters. Nose to tail
length approximately 9,50 meters.
The
next step
After
succeeding in spotting a glider there was one question that took posession
of my grey brain cells.
Would it be possible to identify a single plane,
preferably a motorglider, on one of the airports
or airfields covered by Google Earth's imagery?
At first, the question seemed a bit ridiculous. Of course that would not be
possible.
But thinking about it, after a while it seemed to me that with some luck this
should be possible.
And, amazing but
true, it worked out as you can see below.
|
|
 In case you had doubts. The 10 meter tall letters on the ground clearly read: Mönchengladbach. Please take a second look at the glider in the middle of the circle ! |
 Extreme close-up of the glider in the circle. There's no problem in identifying this plane as being a motorglider. The left part of the propellor can easily be seen at the nose of the aircraft. Also notice the following details: 1. The tips of the wings are painted red 2. The nose is mainly red, cut in two halfs by a white line in the middle 3. Wingspan as measured by Google Earth's tool is approximately 17,63 meter 4. Nose to tail length approximately 8,10 meters 5. The cockpit roof is made of transparent material, except a kind of H-shaped white part in the middle. 6. Near the fuselage, two small white parts are positioned forward a little bit. |
Question:
are there any motorgliders stationed at Mönchengladbach airport?
Answer: Yes there are, a Katana DA 20 and a Grob G109b (D-KEOI)
both owned by Aeroclub
77.
Now take a look at the Grob 109b D-KEOI of Aeroclub 77 below:
 Please note the following: 1. The wingtips are painted red 2. The nose is red, cut in halfs by a white strip 3. Official wingspan of the Grob109b is stated to be 17,4 meter 4. Official fuselage length is stated to be 8,1 meter 5. Except for a H-shaped part, the cockpit roof is made of transparent materials 6. When looking at the plane from somewhere vertically above it's centre, the two caps around the wheels are sticking a little bit forward from underneath the wings. |
Isn't
that amazing!
The motorglider in the picture of Mönchengladbach Google Earth can be
identified as D-KEOI, owned by Aeroclub 77.
Our friend Christian Müssemeyer frequently flies this motorglider!
Mister Müssemeyer, if you're reading this: Big Brother is watching you!
By the way: you can read about a flight of Henk's Taifun D-KFDI joined by
this Grob 109b (D-KEOI) flown by Christian Müssemeyer in another article
titled Nancy return flight on this
website.
For the reader who wants to try this fantastic piece of software at home,
please download Google Earth from their website: http://earth.google.com/
.
