Sunday 20 December 2009

Google Earth updates Jeziorki

In the last few weeks or so, Google Earth has updated the map of south-west Warsaw to one dated 23 July 2009, replacing the earlier one from 24 June 2008.

A neat feature in later releases of Google Earth is the time slider; you can replace the latest image of Jeziorki with ones from 2008, 2007, 2003 and 2002. Below: Our house April 2002 (left) and July 2009 (right). Main difference is vegetation flourishing in garden. Two fruit trees have been cut down in the field to the right.

The biggest changes in and around Jeziorki, visible from space, are the development of the 'Elka' (S2 southern Warsaw bypass and the S79 linking it to ul. Sasanki) and the destruction of the rampa na kruszywa (torn down in 2008, the developer who was going to build a large estate of houses and flats here clearly in trouble).

Copy and paste these coordinates into the Google Earth search box for the Rampa (52° 6'24.15"N, 20°59'47.47"E) and Węzeł Lotnisko ( 52° 8'19.68"N, 20°59'18.85"E). The roadworks are particularly visible as a sandy-colour scar running north-south and east-west across our corner of Warsaw.

Also of interest, across ul. Puławska in the Las Kabacki forest, is the crash site of LOT Flight 5055 ( 52° 6'47.04"N, 21° 2'44.67"E) on 7 May 1987. In the 2002 shot, the scars of the crash (some 360 metres long by 50 metres wide) are clearly visible. In the most recent photo, it's visible, but only just.

3 comments:

Rubeus said...

Well, check how Jeziorki looks like at zumi (zumi.pl) and at the offical warsaw municpal map at
http://www.mapa.um.warszawa.pl/

Michael Dembinski said...

Rubeus - both are good; W-wa one in particular for finding out things like where the taxi zones end.

Zumi good for superimposing properties for sale.

student SGH said...

Zumi.pl has a better quality of photos, higher resolution and considerable enlargement available. The current photos are dated back to late March or early April 2009, but the Polish maps lack those funny gadgets like photos or road system overlay.

and I checked the new photos in google and the greenery struck me (but note that June 2009 was very wet). I found two things worth attention:
1. a Warsaw-bound train approaching level crossing in Nowa Iwiczna, the engine hauls probably forty typical empty(?) coal wagons,
2. the next trio of engines (I don't think those are engine and two wagons, on the Siekierki siding, just beyond the place it swings eastwards in NI