As to image quality in Google Earth, Google is certainly working to improve resolution worldwide. They obtain their imagery from a wide range of vendors but as you noted, in many areas it is still somewhat low resolution.

- Virgil

Steve

Last year I flew down the West and up the East Coast of South America. I used Google Earth to get a preview of the airports. I was surprised to find many of the fields I really needed under clouds or part of a field had good definition and the remaining part displayed in a very low resolution. One airport on a Caribbean island appeared to be at the base of a snow capped mountain. The mountain was barely 2k high - figured that! It turned out that the aerial view of the island that was stitched into the mosaic had a cloud cover.

The following are glaring examples:

SCNT - Puerto Natales, Chile (excellent, well equipped and maintain airport, gateway to one of the most scenic parts of the world.) 51° 40’ 20.54” S, 72° 31’ 32.32.74” W. Using Google Earth the airport is under scattered clouds and the picture is of low quality. Last year, at least the airport was clear of clouds.

SCCI - Punta Arenas, Chile, major airport facility on the Strait of Magellan. 41° 09” 04.12”S, 71° 09’ 33.74”W, low quality picture.

SAZS - San Carlos de Bariloche, Argentina (major airport) 41° 09’ 04.12”S, 71° 09’ 33.74”W. Low quality picture.

I think the point is made with the above examples.

Next year I will direct a flight of 7 aircraft around the world and already I am finding some of the airports we plan to use suffering from the above problem.

I hope you can get things changed.

Thank you for your consideration on this matter.

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