What Happened to The “Great Pacific Garbage Patch” on Google Earth?

The “Great Pacific Garbage Patch” is an area which is about the size of Texas in the Pacific Ocean that is filled with trash. If you search for that on Google Earth, it will not be found. Though of a considerable size, form above the patch is not visible.

The fact that such a large patch was not seen in Google earth was very disappointing. And this is after the company having made a great announcement with Google Ocean in the beginning of this year. They claimed that this is a way to view the major part of our earth which is water covered. Google Earth is supposed to be good when it comes to viewing under the ocean. If so why is it that this pile of garbage on the surface can’t be seen?

When contacted, the Google Ocean product manager Steve Miller was ready to give an explanation. He said that the company has not found very nice sources of data for most of the open ocean. Satellite imagery for ocean surface is limited, but where ever it is possible, the results are preserved in the recent versions of Google Earth. The satellite view is stored in Google Maps. A good example is that you can see the vessels in Southeast Asia. Imagery has lots of applications, ranging from finding ships to locating illegal fishing vessels to locating off-shore oil platforms.

According to Steve Miller, the patch does not appear in satellite imagery. This is a major challenge. The reason for this is that the plastic is a little below the surface of water and is in particulate nature. There are groups now trying to collect data about the patch by sampling process and other expeditions. He expressed hopes that these expeditions would help Google Earth obtain maps.

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