Google Earth Historical View

[Curt.Yowell]

I have had good luck with the "historical view" on Google Earth. Wondering if anyone has had similar luck with it's accuracy.

 

[cellrdwellr]

I think the link is broken, I usually use historic aerials, but am always open to new research tools. Thanks for sharing!

 

[jimther]

I have had good luck with the "historical view" on Google Earth. Wondering if anyone has had similar luck with it's accuracy.

Curt,
I use Google Earth’s historic view all the time. It usually only will take me back to 1995 or later. One thing I like about it is that some of the views were taken in winter, when all the leaves are off the trees, which can give you a better look at what is below the tree canopy in wooded areas. Using the “slider control” to drag thru the various years those images were taken, some years are very clear and some are not sharp at all.
Like cellrdwellr, I use Historic Aerials a lot also. The earliest images I’ve seen there is 1938, but the older the image, the older the technology was for attaining sharp images.
As far as accuracy goes, not sure what you really mean, because these are photographic images and therefore showing true to what’s there.

I also use both sites to compare features from OLD historic hand-drawn maps(schools, churches, mills, rivers, etc)

 

[Rock Jock]

Google Earth Pro is one of my constantly used research tools. The wayback images feature is quite useful. I also use the drawing utility, the image import and stretching feature and the measuring utility quite a bit. I use it in conjunction with another software that has a slope shading (Lidar) layer and historical topos layer. Resolution varies, particularly as a function of vintage, but, even so, can still be useful. Hurricanes can also strip foliage off trees and reveal the understory in semi-tropical and tropical areas. Historical topos can be in dubious register compared to modern stuff.