Just in case anyone is curious, Google Earth and Google Maps have now posted updated aerial images of Central Oklahoma. Just guessing by the vegetation color, I'm guessing it was taken in late winter/early spring of this year.

Take a look for yourself. Its neat to see how things have filled in over the past few years.

http://maps.google.com/

Looks like our neighborhood was taken about March of this year.

I think it was taken around April 8th when comparing it to my Devon pics

Maybe what we need to do is pass a law requiring any aerial photography to be taken from April to October. (kidding, but my point remains)

I-40 is coming along. Its hard to believe that it is going to take 2 more years to complete. You can see the route on the eastern and western sides. Walker and Robinson are the only two bridges they have left to build except for the overpasses that lead to a eventual boulevard.

When google eventually updates its images again I-40 should be complete and Devon tower will be topped-off.

Maybe what we need to do is pass a law requiring any aerial photography to be taken from April to October. (kidding, but my point remains)

Well, if their going to leave the same image for over three years they could be nice enough to take a spring photo so people don't think OKC is a barren wasteland.

I think it was taken around April 8th when comparing it to my Devon pics I'd say you are about right. April 8, or a few days afterwards.

Food court tents are already set up for Arts Festival, as is the performance plaza. At the same time, Hudson is not yet closed off and the artist tents are not up.

Keen eye!

From what I see, it appears to be Octber/ early November 2007.
I base this on pictures of the OMRF parking garage which I worked on.

From what I see, it appears to be Octber/ early November 2007.
I base this on pictures of the OMRF parking garage which I worked on.

Maybe different parts of the city were done at different times. I see my car in the driveway of the house I've only lived in since April 2009.

Checkout Boathouse Row... looks MUCH different.

I can tell a big difference now. Several areas on the northeast side of the city look a lot more filled in now.

OH NO!!!! Look behind Union Station!!! They forgot to tear out that last rail line!!! What if it is still able to utilized!!!

I notice that Google Earth still doesn't have the a 3D image of the Oklahoma Tower...

OH NO!!!! Look behind Union Station!!! They forgot to tear out that last rail line!!! What if it is still able to utilized!!!

Me and some boys are going down there tonight with pick axes. Problem solved. If we don't nip this kind of thing in the bud someone might try to put a railyard and distribution facility there.

They were taken April 8-10th. We had a flight from Atlanta to Las Vegas that had to divert to OKC because of engine issues. This plane sat at OKC from the 8th to the 10th and can be seen at the airport sitting southeast of the terminal.

Way Cool!!! I love Google earth and it's great to see the pics of Okc as it changes.

Is that the Oklahoma River just south of downtown? I don't remember it looking so prominent in the prior aerial photos. Impressive!

Classen Curve looks pretty good from this angle. Also noteworthy up there is the cleared space where Whole Foods is going.

The Images were taken on April 9, 2010. Google Earth says the date if you look down in the bottom left corner.

Is that the Oklahoma River just south of downtown? I don't remember it looking so prominent in the prior aerial photos. Impressive!

I don't think the dams were completed in prior aerial photos. The last photos were about 3-4 years old.

The last photos in google maps anyway were 6-7 years old as the Library didn't have the skylights in. The library was moved into May 1st, 2004.

Some of them are even newer because they've got Midwest City with some REALLY new stuff! It's nice to know they are updating finally after it being so far out of date for so long.

They take the photos on purpose during the part of the year when the leaves are off the trees for a very simple reason. So that you can see what is on the ground better.

Looks like they didn't follow that rule this time. The City is green and looks so much better and alive in these photos.

Wow, Tri City in Newcastle is updated, as well as my addition in Tuttle. As of last week when I last checked my area still showed a green field. However a search for my address still lands in Mustang, not Tuttle.

Noticed this playing with Google Street view...

Eastbound I-40
http://i284.photobucket.com/albums/ll14/Platemaker_photos/eastboundlane.jpg

Westbound I-40
http://i284.photobucket.com/albums/ll14/Platemaker_photos/westboundlane.jpg

Previous images were from 2003. I forget which month. I can't believe nobody ever notices the date in the bottom left corner? That's like the main thing you should look at on Google Earth.

The pictures in my neighborhood were taken no earlier than late May 2009. I was out of town May 11-13 that year and while I was the tree in my front yard blew down. It took me about 10 days to get it removed, and the tree is non-existant in these photos.

Interesting:

I looked at Tinker and if you look at the main N-S runway (17-35), toward the south end, there is an E3 AWACS just leaving the ground. A little further south, there is "another" one and then "another". Altogether, I see seven of "them".

I put everything in "quotes" because they all have to be the same aircraft in succeeding stages of departure. Granted, I'm not a pilot, but certainly only in the absolute most dire of circumstances would AWACS planes take off in a manner even approaching that.

I wonder what anomaly would cause a photographic illusion like this.

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=midwest+city,+OK&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=45.332616,74.619141&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Midwest+City,+Oklahoma&ll=35.402973,-97.378693&spn=0.022912,0.036435&t=h&z=15

I guess the photos that the satellites take are like individual shots knitted together, but I've seen planes in the air before, but I've never seen a series of "them".

Interesting:

I looked at Tinker and if you look at the main N-S runway (17-35), toward the south end, there is an E3 AWACS just leaving the ground. A little further south, there is "another" one and then "another". Altogether, I see seven of "them".

I put everything in "quotes" because they all have to be the same aircraft in succeeding stages of departure. Granted, I'm not a pilot, but certainly only in the absolute most dire of circumstances would AWACS planes take off in a manner even approaching that.

I wonder what anomaly would cause a photographic illusion like this.

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=midwest+city,+OK&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=45.332616,74.619141&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Midwest+City,+Oklahoma&ll=35.402973,-97.378693&spn=0.022912,0.036435&t=h&z=15

I guess the photos that the satellites take are like individual shots knitted together, but I've seen planes in the air before, but I've never seen a series of "them".

I'm pretty sure it's the same aircraft, for a couple of reasons:

1. If you'll notice the stripe on the radome, it's in exactly the same position on each 'aircraft.' Those radomes rotate, and it's unlikely that 6-7 aircraft would have theirs parked in exactly the same position. If you'll look at the other E3s parked to the West of the North end of the runway, their radome stripes are in all directions.

2. It's highly unlikely that that many large aircraft would be allowed to take off in such a short span, because of vortex turbulence. Every plane after the first would be in danger. The northernmost two are only a couple-hundred feet apart; no way the USAF would let those big, expensive birds take off so closely spaced.

As to how this photographic anomaly occurred, I suspect the satellite taking the photos is in a polar orbit, going North to South as it passed overhead. The aircraft was taking off to the South, staying in frame between each exposure.

It was interesting to see 6 B-52s, a couple of B1s, and several KC135s parked on the tarmac, two of which were missing their tails!

This phenomena is very common. It's the same aircraft. The wake turbulence off of each 707 (AWACS) is enough to crash the other behind it. 3 minutes of separation is required from the time the first aircraft begins it's takeoff roll to when the next one can start theirs. The planes in trail would be a ploom of smoke and crater in the ground taking off in that series. Same plane.

In case anyone is interested Google has updated satellite imagery (http://maps.google.com/) of Central Oklahoma. Have to hand it to the geniuses in Mountain View for keeping the imagery much more up to date than it was in the past. According to my Google Earth program these were taken on October 12. Among the highlights I found:
-The Devon Tower
-How far the 63rd/Western area has progressed, with Whole Foods, CHK, and Classen Curve
-The new outlet mall off I-40
-The Crosstown is nearly done
-The 235/44 Interchange and Morgan Road UPI
-New construction in Norman/OU

The effects of the drought are very obvious. Lake Hefner has a TON of dried lakebed...kinda depressing. Also, maybe its just me but it seems there's less residential development on the outskirts.

Just FYI, I believe it was announced that digital streetview imagery will be updated for both OKC and Tulsa next year.

EDIT: To see the updated images you may have to select the "earth" display option instead of the regular satellite view.

Good to see the updates but it makes me wish it had an option for comparing the various passes they have.


Interesting:

I looked at Tinker and if you look at the main N-S runway (17-35), toward the south end, there is an E3 AWACS just leaving the ground. A little further south, there is "another" one and then "another". Altogether, I see seven of "them".

I put everything in "quotes" because they all have to be the same aircraft in succeeding stages of departure. Granted, I'm not a pilot, but certainly only in the absolute most dire of circumstances would AWACS planes take off in a manner even approaching that.

I wonder what anomaly would cause a photographic illusion like this.

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=midwest+city,+OK&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=45.332616,74.619141&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Midwest+City,+Oklahoma&ll=35.402973,-97.378693&spn=0.022912,0.036435&t=h&z=15

I guess the photos that the satellites take are like individual shots knitted together, but I've seen planes in the air before, but I've never seen a series of "them".

They are very long passes of many shots stitched together. It should only happen when the satellite and the plane are moving in the same direction at similar speeds, which seems like it should be pretty rare.

Good to see the updates but it makes me wish it had an option for comparing the various passes they have.

View > Historical View

It'll give you a scroll menu at the top to go back through all the different images over time...if that is what you are looking for.

Level is visible and so is the dirt work at Aloft.

Thanks for the heads up!

These images must have been uploaded after Monday, November 21. I flew out of Will Rogers that Monday evening and earlier in the day, I had looked at the airport on Google Earth to see where gate 14 was located. At that time, there was a WN 737 at gate 16 and nothing at gate 14. Now there are WN 737s at both gates 14 and 16.

Nice to see the outlet mall and the elephant habitat at the zoo, too!

Clearly we all know why this is so, but is anybody else amused to see how the river just sort of "disappears" once you cross under Eastern/MLK?

From straight above, the Devon Tower doesn't look that tall until you realize that its shadow reaches the south tower of Leadership Square.

Clearly we all know why this is so, but is anybody else amused to see how the river just sort of "disappears" once you cross under Eastern/MLK?

What? Make fun of our fake river? :-)

Would be nice if they would consider putting more dams up along it to help retain more water for when the city needs. Not to mention it would do wonders for improving the quality of the land it runs through. Granted I prefer a more natural look and not lined by stone.

Wasn't there a plan to eventually dam up the river further upstream to create a natural like lake habitat for wildlife?

you can still see all the fire damage east of I-35 where all the trees are brown

Hmm...the zoom so tight, I can tell who the last person to drive my truck was...:dad:

I agree with sometime early April. Also based on the cars in our parking lot I would say 3 to 4 o'clock PM. At least in the area of SW 54th and Meridian.

I agree with sometime early April. Also based on the cars in our parking lot I would say 3 to 4 o'clock PM. At least in the area of SW 54th and Meridian.

The imagery in Google Maps is from April 2010. However, Google Earth's imagery is dated October 12, 2011.

We should soon have new street view images from Google as they were redoing them recently.

This is a great tool but several months ago I clicked on the satellite view and then zoomed in on my home. To my great astonishment I saw myself standing in my front yard. When I told my wife she said that if could be seen from outer space that it was probably time to drop a few pounds.:whiteflag

Just imagine how clear you'd be on a NSA spy satellite!

Looks like the satellite imagery is now on the normal Google Maps site, not just in Earth mode. Maybe they'll update the 45 degrees views after they release the updated street views.

Check out the overpass on I-40 and Morgan road. That thing is going to be huge!

Check out the overpass on I-40 and Morgan road. That thing is going to be huge!

I drive past it about 5 times a week and it is impressive already and they're only about halfway done.

I drive past it about 5 times a week and it is impressive already and they're only about halfway done.

It is what they call a single point interchange. I think we have a thread on it somewhere here. They are building one on Main over I-35 in Norman also.

Tulsa has been added to the cities with available 45 degree imagery.

Is it new or old 45°?

Looks newer to me.

Zoom in on the Devon Tower. From a distance the tower is partially constructed. Zoom in and at some point it reverts to the parking lot that was there previously.

That's cause our 45° angle has yet to be updated!