CYPRUS has recently become more available on Google Earth and though you may not see your house in Nicosia, you can easily count the number of sunbeds on Phinikoudes beach in Larnaca.
A quick trip around the programme shows the capital is still foggy in most place as resolution is not great but there are many areas of the island where the view is clear. Most of the satellite images are not new and may date back several years.
While Nicosia is blurry, there are clear views of Famagusta, Kyrenia, Ayia Napa and Larnaca among other places plus an obviously old shot of Larnaca Airport.
Tried of Cyprus? Pick anywhere else in the world. Track down a street in the UK and pinpoint a house or park or school.
The Google Earth programme, which is available in a basic free version or pay version for better viewing, puts a planet's worth of imagery and other geographic information right on your desktop. View exotic locales like Maui and Paris as well as points of interest such as local restaurants, hospitals and schools.
The whole world is covered with medium resolution imagery and terrain data. This resolution allows you to see major geographic features and man-made development such as towns, but not detail of individual buildings. Additional high-resolution imagery which reveals detail for individual buildings is available for most of the major cities in the US, Western Europe, Canada, and the UK.
“Not all cities are covered in high resolution (where you can see individual buildings and cars) detail. We have more imagery of the United States than other countries currently. And because the imagery comes from a variety of sources, and is mosaic-ed together, it is difficult for us to specify the date of a city or region,” says Google.
“Our images are photographs taken by satellites and aircraft sometime in the last three years.”
Google has been criticised by some countries, including India and Israel on security grounds.
The argument is that the software provides information about military or other critical installations that could be used by terrorists.
To download the software, visit
http://earth.google.com
