Getting Started in Google Earth Pro

Once you have downloaded and installed Google Earth Pro for desktop, open the program on your computer.

In the search bar in the upper left part of your screen, type in “Mount Royal University”. Click Search.

You are now looking at a bird’s eye view, or map view of the Mount Royal University (MRU) campus. This is definitely a bird’s eye view: in the bottom right-hand* corner of the image it will tell you the altitude from which you are looking down. In Figure T1, we are looking down at MRU from an altitude of 2.12 km!

Let’s point out a few things you should know about Google Earth.

1. The red place marker shows the name and the exact location of the place you typed into the search bar. (See the red box in Figure T1 below)
2. In the top right corner, the compass shows which direction is north in the current view. In Figure T1, north is toward the top of the image (in the direction of the blue arrow).
3. The bar in the bottom left corner of the image shows the scale bar (inside the orange box in Figure T1). A scale bar helps you determine the actual, on the ground, distance between points or along lines. In Figure T1 below, the entire length of the scale bar represents a real distance of 230 m, and each division along the scale bar represents a real distance of 57.5 m.

Let’s check out a few more features in Google Earth. Look at the numbers in the bottom right corner of the image (See red box in Figure T2).

These numbers are the coordinates for the cursor location and they change as you change the position of the cursor. Coordinates are used to specify an exact location using a series of numbers in a grid system. Grid systems are used to divide the Earth’s surface into imaginary squares formed by two sets of perpendicular lines. Two common grid systems used in Google Earth that we will use throughout this term are geographic (latitude and longitude), and Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM). We will come back to the concept of grid systems in the next part of this tutorial.

The sliding bar in the blue box in Figure T2 can be used to zoom in and out. You can also zoom in and out using the scroll wheel on your mouse or the keyboard shortcuts defined in the table below. Notice how when you do this, the number value on the scale bar changes. Zooming in and out changes the scale of the image.

Now let’s explore how we can measure distances in Google Earth. First, make sure you are back in map view. To do this, on your keyboard press ‘r’, or click View, Reset, Tilt and Compass.

You can also measure the length of a path, rather than just a straight line. Figure T5 shows a measured path along the ring road around MRU. The total length of the path is 1.55 km. Notice that you can change the unit of measurement by using the drop down menu. Click clear to erase the line or path you measured.

Let’s try changing some options in Google Earth Pro. Click on Tools, Options. The dialogue box shown in Figure T6 should appear. Examine the 3D View tab, where you can choose between using UTM coordinates or Lat/Long coordinates (Figure T6, red box). Choose to display lat/long coordinates in one of three ways: decimal degrees, degrees-minutes-seconds, or degrees-decimal minutes. You can also change the default units of measurement (Figure T6, blue box) from imperial (feet, miles) to metric (metres, kilometres). When you are happy with your selections, click Apply.

 

 

Finally, let’s examine some historical satellite imagery. Google Earth is a great tool for examining changes to Earth’s surface over the past few decades. By clicking on the clock icon in the top toolbar (Figure T7, red arrow), you can see historical imagery for the area on your screen. Use the scroll bar to look through the historical imagery of the city of Calgary from an altitude of ~70 -80 km.

Keyboard Shortcuts for Google Earth Pro

Media Attributions

• Figures T1, T2, T3, T4, T5, T6, T7 used under the following Google Maps and Google Earth guidelines.