Understanding special needs of the community often results from reporting critical information on large-scale events. We have received many requests from people who want to know if there is a way to see if their property is affected by the High Park fire. The answer is a resounding yes. Last year during the Crystal Mountain fire west of Loveland Colorado, I suggested to the US Forest Service that Google Earth files could be easily created to advise and inform the public. This has now become a standard part of their protocol, but we need to close the loop with the public. The following image is a link to the KMZ file of the High Park fire. Download it and read the article following the image to understand how to use it for a 3D exploration of the entire fire or your specific property in this area.
Click on the image to download the Google Earth file of the High Park Fire
Once you have downloaded the file, your system may automatically associate the file type with a Google Earth plug-in installed in your browser. If not, save the file to a location you can easily remember, and then run Google Earth. Select File-Open and browse to the location you saved the file. Google Earth will automatically “fly” you to a position hovering over the High Park fire boundaries. Us this link to acquire Google Earth if you do not have it already installed: Google Earth Download – Courtesy Black ice Geospatial LLC
This will also address the needs of property owners and families wanting to know if the fire is near or has already burnt in the area of their property. By entering the address of any property into the Fly to field, Google Earth will provide a birds-eye view of the property you wish to see. Remember, this is not a static map, it is a 3D dynamic presentation. Be sure to use the Navigation console to Zoom In, change Eye Angle and Direction of View and pan to any desired point.
Please write us and suggest areas you would like to explore and what you would like to know about them. Check Black Ice Geospatial for many more Google Earth 3D developments and links to views that help you Visualize Unseen Information©.
[...] Resource: Viewing Fire Using Google Earth [...]
i’m trying to understand more about this subject, can you explain it clearer?
It is very simple to use Google Earth to view any area of the planet’s surface. Here are some of the key concepts that may help:
1 – Google Earth uses a native format called Keyhole Markup Language (KML). If you compress this file it is called a KMZ. It does not matter to Google Earth which format you ask it to use. When an author using a GIS produces a KMZ file and makes it available, you load it just as you load a DOC file into a word processor – File-Open. In a word processor, the program displays a window with the document embedded. In Google Earth, the program displays a 3 dimensional image of the planet’s surface with the details of the KMZ file draped or suspended over it’s surface. Please install Google Earth, read it’s help menus, and we would be delighted if your first KMZ experiment was one of our developments from Black Ice Geospatial LLC. We are here to help you with Visualizing Unseen Information©
[...] Resource: Viewing Fire Using Google Earth [...]
[...] Resource: Fire On Google Earth [...]
Black Ice…What is your opinion of High Park incident command cutting off access to the IR perimeter KMZ’s that were at the NIFC ftp site (which is where I’m assuming you were getting your data)? See my posting on the subject here:
http://wlfhotlist.com/threads/27045-CO-LRX-High-Park?p=113181#post113181
If you have a different source for the daily KMZ’s (which I know are still being created), care to share where?
Thanks!
The public should be outraged and the people responsible for denying the information to responsible journalists and researchers should be investigated. Miilions of taxpayer dollars are used to make these overflights of fire areas, and the data will now never reach the public. It is a typical case of an obscure government agency run by petty bureaucrats who serve only themselves and not the community. To tell these people what you think of their keeping this information within their elite group and denying it to the public, I suggest calling your state and federal congressional representatives, your local and national newspapers, and call the NIROPS National Coordinator, Tom Mellin, Office 505-842-3845 or his cell phone, 505-301-8167. You may also attempt to express your opinion at the National Infrared Operations website, http://nirops.fs.fed.us , but you will quickly learn that this is not a department that encourages contact with the public – the people who pay their salaries and buy their extremely expensive aircraft.
Because of this denial of information, an effective way of expressing your opinion may be to contact the US Forest Service leadership directly. This is best done at http://www.fs.fed.us/. Perhaps it is time to remind Mr. Tidwell of the motto they publish, “100 Years of Caring for the Land and Serving People”. At least one heavy-handed department has stopped doing that.
[...] Resource: Fire On Google Earth [...]
[...] Resource: Fire On Google Earth [...]
[...] Map: On Google Earth [...]
[...] Map: On Google Earth [...]
[...] Map: On Google Earth [...]
[...] Map: On Google Earth [...]
[...] Map: On Google Earth [...]
[...] Map: On Google Earth [...]
[...] Map: On Google Earth [...]
[...] Map: On Google Earth [...]
[...] Map: On Google Earth [...]
[...] Map: On Google Earth [...]
[...] Map: On Google Earth [...]
[...] Map: On Google Earth [...]
[...] Map: On Google Earth [...]