From the heart of the Amazon to brown bears in Alaska, highlights from 2017

By Vanessa Schneider, Program Manager, Google Earth Outreach

What really motivates us on the Earth and Earth Engine teams is our users and partners. We are endlessly amazed by the impact of the work being done by non-profits, scientists, educators, journalists, and many more around the world. In celebration of that work, we wanted to highlight some of the projects that really got us excited this year, in no particular order:

1. Protecting the oceans

Since first launching at Secretary John Kerry’s Our Ocean Conference in September 2016, Global Fishing Watch has grown from a partnership between Oceana, SkyTruth and Google into an independent nonprofit — and making numerous impacts. In a radical move toward transparency, Indonesia became the first nation to publicly share the country’s Vessel Monitoring System (VMS) with the world, and Peru pledged to follow. The first global view of transshipments, often a critical component of illegal fishing activity and slave labor, was published and the methodology has been used to understand the ring of vessels responsible for the Galapagos’ largest incident of shark-smuggling. With 20+ partner research papers currently in development, Global Fishing Watch will continue to provide the data and tech needed to protect our oceans.

2. Google Earth in the classroom

In April, we unveiled Google Earth on the web. Why was this so exciting for us? Teachers and students — some of our biggest users — can now access Earth quickly and easily on a Chromebook. They can also take advantage of special lesson plans via Google Earth for Education. Some of the biggest education organizations out there joined us for the launch, creating custom learning content for the classroom. Sesame Street introduced cultures around the world; PBS Education retraced the journey of Lewis & Clark; and National Geographic Fellow Paul Salopek, along with National Geographic Society, took us on a 21,000-mile odyssey to retrace our ancestors’ global migration on foot.

3. Measuring air quality

This year, Google, in partnership with Aclima, published hyper-local air pollution maps of several areas in California including San Francisco, Oakland, Los Angeles and the Central Valley region. (ICYMI: Air View maps air pollution by equipping the Google Street View car fleet with air quality sensors. Whoa!) Air View has successfully measured more than one billion air quality data points — and we’re just getting started.

4. Discover your connection to the Amazon

Eu Sou Amazônia is an Earth project made up of 11 interactive stories that take you deep into the Brazilian Amazon and helps us all discover our connection to the world’s largest rainforest. These stories are told by some of the diverse peoples who call the forest home — the Suruí, Cinta Larga, Tembé, and Quilombolas (ARQMO) — as well as the nonprofit Instituto Socioambiental. Some were produced by one of Brazil’s greatest storytellers, the acclaimed film director Fernando Meirelles. A special thanks to Equipe de Conservação da Amazônia (Ecam) and Associação de Defesa Etnoambiental Kanindé who also helped make this happen.

5. Fighting malaria

DiSARM (or Disease Surveillance And Risk Monitoring), a project led by the Malaria Elimination Initiative and supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and Clinton Health Access Initiative, is fighting the spread of malaria by mapping the places where malaria is common. With the help of Earth Engine, UCSF’s Global Health Group and DiSARM creates high-resolution “risk maps” that help malaria control programs identify the areas where they should direct resources for prevention and treatment. This year, the malaria tool was launched in Swaziland, the first country to pilot the platform before the malaria season.

6. Satellite views after a disaster

Google works with the crisis response community to help people impacted by natural disasters and humanitarian crises easily find the critical information they need to stay safe. We also provide tools and data needed in times of disaster, including post-event satellite and aerial imagery on the Google Crisis Map and in Google Earth. People find it helpful to check on their homes and loved ones; responders can make decisions on where to send resources. In September, after Hurricane Harvey and Hurricane Irma, we published Earth layers featuring satellite imagery from DigitalGlobe, collected just days after landfall in Texas and throughout the Caribbean. Here’s a before and after view of Highlands, Texas:

7. Sunroof comes to Germany

We launched Project Sunroof in the United States in 2015 to help people make informed decisions about solar power for their homes. In May, Project Sunroof started providing data outside the U.S. for the first time. With this expansion, people in Germany can now use Project Sunroof data to see the solar potential of their rooftops thanks to a collaboration between E.ON, software producer Tetraeder and the Project Sunroof team. For our users in Germany, just head over to the E.ON Solar Calculator and type in your address to get started.

8. Earth in the news

Google Earth was used in some of this year’s biggest news stories, timelining events and providing geographical context when clear, accurate information is critical. CNN used Earth to cover the wildfires in Los Angeles. ESPN used it on “Setenta Sete”, a documentary about the tragic story of the Chapecoense soccer team and LaMia flight 2933. And with The Atomic Bombing of Hiroshima, The New York Times created an interactive 360-video experience that allows you to witness from above what happened in Japan on August 6, 1945.

9. Live bears cams

The project that truly delighted us — and admittedly, killed our productivity — was Explore.org’s Brown Bears of Alaska. Through a series of live webcams, anyone around the world can journey into Katmai National Park and watch hungry bears dine out of Brooks Falls or watch the salmon darting underwater. We could barely wait for their follow-up, The Arctic Live (polar bears!). Learn more about Explore.org from founder Charles Annenberg Weingarten in a post he wrote for our Medium blog.

Thanks to all of our users and partners for continuing to inspire us year after year. Onward to making an even bigger impact in 2018!

Note: It was almost impossible coming up with this short list — too much to choose from! If you’re interested in catching news from the community of incredible partners using mapping technology to protect our planet as it’s happening, in addition to Medium, we encourage you to follow along with Google Earth on Twitter and Facebook.