Global Ortho & 17 Million SqKm of New Satellite Imagery

In a recent post, we announced the completion of the Global Ortho (GO) program in the United States.  GO for Western Europe is on schedule to be completed by the end of CY 2012.

Also new this month, Bing Maps adds nearly 17 Million SqKm of new satellite imagery!

Global Ortho

New Satellite Imagery

Boulder, Colorado – See it Live!

Paparahandi, India – See it Live!

Go to the corners of the Earth, including Paparahandi, India in a click of a button with the help of Bing Maps new satellite imagery!

As part of the Global Ortho project, BITs has acquired 100% of the USA

We’ve wrapped up the Global Ortho project for the US with the release of 800,133 SqKm! Be sure to check out  our imagery commemorating this exciting milestone.

There are two places where we could not collect photos: Area 51 and the Vandenberg Air Force Base. However, the United States allowed the Global Ortho aircraft everywhere else, and Microsoft captured astonishing imagery.

After two years of acquiring imagery, the Bing Imagery Technology  (BITs) team is excited to reveal the completion of aerial coverage in the U.S.A. That means every square inch of the continental U.S.A. has been photographed, bringing Bing Maps consistent quality and high resolution imagery.

Davis-Monthan AFB
Tucson, Arizona

Red Rocks Amphitheatre
Morrison, Colorado

DSC Logistics Park
Berkeley, Illinois

Microsoft Campus
Redmond, Washington

MORE HIGHLIGHTS:

This imagery was collected at a 30cm resolution (1 foot = 1 pixel). While many areas of the country have been photographed at higher resolution, Bing Maps covered the entire country at this high resolution.  Some parts of the United States have never before been aerially photographed in such detail! This photography project yielded a staggering amount of data.  To get a sense of the size, imagine lining up all the GO pixels end to end. So laid out, those pixels would reach around the earth 994 times, to the moon 104 times, and all the way to Venus (with an extra trillion pixels to spare.)

Here are a few news clips of the Bing Maps Global Ortho project:

BITs Golden Spike Event: Time to Celebrate!

See the Golden Spike Event Team Photo blog post for a list of the individuals in the Bing Maps Global Ortho Golden Spike photo.

To celebrate the US completion, the team flew one last commemorative mission which we’ve called our "Golden Spike" flight. Golden Spike hearkens back to the spike that was driven to commemorate the joining of the first transcontinental railroad in the U.S. For our Golden Spike celebrating the largest aerial photography project ever undertaken, Bing Maps invited local Colorado chalk artist Jennifer Mosquera to create the biggest Bing logo ever made!  At over 200′ by 90′, the logo may indeed be the biggest Bing ever.  As luck would have it, the ideal spot for the logo in the Golden Spike flight was the top of the parking garage just north of the Bing Maps Imagery Team’s building in downtown Boulder, CO.

The BITs team made two videos of the Golden spike event.  The first video documents the artists making the biggest Bing ever, and the second video narrates the day of the final Global Ortho flight.

Video 1: Microsoft Bing Maps – Global Ortho Golden Spike – Logo Creation (5:41)

Video 2:  Bing Maps Global Ortho Golden Spike – Day of the Flight (3:48)

Brand New Imagery over Manhattan!

We’ve acquired new 15cm imagery over Manhattan including a view of the Space Shuttle Enterprise. The Enterprise was the first Space Shuttle Orbiter built for NASA and now resides at the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum.

Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum
Manhattan, New York, USA

MORE NY ATTRACTIONS:

BITS Publishes New Satellite Imagery to Bing Maps!

The BITs team is pleased to announce a new publication of satellite imagery totaling 85 terabytes and covering nearly 17 million SqKm (16,915,916 SqKm, to be exact!)

Faulkland Island Burning
Off the coast of South America

Al Mazyunah
Oman

Farm Circles
Saudi Arabia

San Cristobal
Nicaragua

MORE HIGHLIGHTS:

We’ve updated coverage across the globe. South America, southern Asia, Africa, and Australia make up the largest amount of this month’s release. Check out Mexico, Russia, and Canada for additional updated imagery!

Total coverage of new satellite imagery currently live on Bing Maps!