Google Earth Library

There are many ways to visualize the terrain and topography of the Earth’s surface on a map.  The terrain maps presented here were created by combining data from

• Space Shuttle’s Radar Topography Mission (SRTM)
• Scripps Institution of Oceanography
• NASA’s Blue Marble imagery
• GTOPO

In short, the SRTM and GTOPO elevation data was used to add hill shading to the Blue Marble imagery.  The resulting terrain maps show an amazing level of detail and allow us to see the surface of the Earth in a way that is not possible by viewing the source data by itself.

Each map is available as a a standard 32-bit color GeoTIFF file.  The maps are being made available under the Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial Share Alike license.  Contact Me via this form if you would like to discuss using them for commercial purposes.

The maps currently available are listed below:

Global Terrain Maps:

• Global Terrain Map – 580 MB GeoTIFF file at 1,000 meter resolution
• Global Terrain Map – 8 GB GeoTIFF split into 72 tiles at 250 meter resolution

Country Terrain Maps (DOWNLOAD HERE):

Updated 7/10/2010

The country terrain maps are at 90 meter resolution at Geographic Projection.  I will continue to add more countries and areas throughout the world as I have time.  If you have a specific request, post a comment and I will try to accommodate it.

Afghanistan
Albania
Australia_NE
Australia_NW
Australia_SE
Australia_SW
Austria
Belarus
Belgium-Luxembourg-Netherlands
Bahrain-Kuwait-Saudi_Arabia
Bosnia-Herzegovina
Bulgaria
Croatia
Czech Republic
Denmark
Egypt
Estonia-Latvia-Lithuania
France
Germany
Hungary
Iran
Iraq
Israel-Lebanon-Palestine
Japan
Jordan
Kosovo
Macedonia
Moldova
Montenegro
New Zealand
North Korea
Oman
Pakistan
Papua New Guinea-Solomon Islands-Indonesia
Poland
Portugal
Romania
Serbia
Slovakia
Slovenia
South Korea
Spain
Tazmania
Turkey
UAE
United Kingdom
Vietnam
Yemen

US State Terrain Maps (Low resolution JPG files are linked below.  Download high resolution (90 meter)  JPG/GeoTIFF files from here)

Related posts

• SRTM Enhanced Blue Marble Terrain Map of California
• Clean Earth
• USGS Topographic Maps For Google Earth
• USGS Topographic Maps
• USGS Streamflow Gages

This terrain map of California was created by combining the NASA Blue Marble imagery with the global elevation data from the Space Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM).  The combination of these two data sets creates an amazing new way of viewing the Earth’s topography and landforms.

The SRTM elevation data is detailed enough that you can make out objects as small as freeways and levees and the Blue Marble imagery brings it all to life.

The California Terrain Map is available in four formats.

• A 1,200 dpi GeoPDF file (10 megabytes)
• A 12,343 x 11,372 24-bit GeoTIFF file (121 megabytes)
• A 1,200 dpi GeoPDF file (53 megabytes) which also includes line/polygon overlays of State Parks, Lakes, Urban Areas and Major Roads for the entire state.  These overlays can be turned on/off using the Layers feature of Acrobat.
• A 12,343 x 11,372 Google Earth SuperOverlay

In case you’re wondering “What about the rest of the Earth?”……I’m working on it.  I’m hoping to have an global overlay at this detail in Google Earth within the next few weeks, but my lowly 6-year old single-core Pentium 4 takes its sweet time in processing the imagery.

I’m also thinking of doing individual maps of various states/countries in GeoPDF/GeoTIFF format since these would make nice base maps that can be used for many different purposes.

These are licensed to you under the Creative Common Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike License.

Created with Global Mapper.  Download the free Evaluation Version of Global Mapper today and help support this website.

Related posts

• Terrain Maps
• OnEarth WMS
• SRTM KML Project
• Clean Earth
• Washington DC Historic Maps

The NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory at the California Institute of Technology has numerous global overlays available that can be viewed with Google Earth. These overlays are on WMS servers, which can be a little tricky to set up in Google Earth, so I have done the hard part and all you have to do is download the file below the screenshot to access all of them. This following layers are included:

1990 Land Characteristics – The Multi-Resolution Land Characteristics Consortium (MRLC) layer covers the continental United States and shows general land characteristics from 1990. This overlay is available in eight different formats (real color, pseudo-color, red band, etc.)

Landsat7 Global Mosaic - The Landsat7 layer covers the entire Earth and shows a mosaic of imagery obtained from the Landsat7 satellite. I believe this imagery was probably obtained in the early 2000’s. This overlay is available in 15 different formats (real color, pseudo-color, Pan Sharpened, red band, thermal band, etc.)

Blue Marble Next Generation Global Mosaic - The Blue Marble layer covers the entire Earth and shows a mosaic of imagery obtained from the MODIS sensor on the Aqua and Terra satellites. I believe this imagery was probably obtained in the mid 2000’s. There are separate mosaics for each month of the year and also various other options, such as the ability to view the mosaics with or without bathymetry shading.

SRTM Reflectance - The SRTM Reflectance layer covers the entire Earth and shows data collected by the Space Shuttle in 2000. This data was used to generate a highly accurate elevation grid of the Earth. There are separate mosaics for each of the four subswaths and and an average. In addition, a 90 meter SRTM Derived Elevation Model is included.

National Elevation Dataset (NED)- The National Elevation Dataset layer covers the continental United States and shows a grey scale elevation map. 30 meter and 90 meter versions of the overlays are provided.

MODIS Dailey Planet - The Dailey Planet layer covers the entire Earth and shows a continuously updated mosaic of imagery obtained from the MODIS sensor on the Aqua and Terra satellites. I believe the age of this imagery is typically less than 24 hours old with the Terra imagery from the morning and Aqua imagery from the afternoon.

Much more information about each of these layers is available at the OnEarth website

Credits Google Earth Library See above descriptions

Related posts

• SRTM Enhanced Blue Marble Terrain Map of California
• MODIS Today
• MODIS Satellite Gallery
• 3Dsolar Addons
• World Fires in Real Time from FIRMS