Google Earth in the SOC

Posted By: Charlie Phillips, P-19, Portland OR
Date: 2/22/08 10:58a.m.

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Didn't want to hijack the thread just below by thouse, so I'll post this separately. We all know about the accuracy issues with SOC charts. Just for fun, I've made a handful of photo charts for my nav software (Coastal Explorer) using Google Earth images. The key issue is knowing the georeferencing accuracy. When compared to NOAA charts up here in the U.S., the georeferencing is excellent. For the very few points I have been able to verify in the SOC, it is also excellent, but I'd like to get a higher confidence level. If any readers are near an easily identifiable, non movable reference point in the SOC that is at least a couple years old, I would love to get an accurate set of coordinates. As an example, for readers who are fortunate enough to be in San Carlos in February, here is an easy point to measure. At the San Carlos Marina boat ramp, facing the water, walk down the right (west) dock about 60 feet until it turns right. The SE corner of the turn is easy to locate precisely the photo. Ideally,the GPS should be WAAS enabled. (WAAS now extends to the SOC) Report coordinates with as much resolution as the GPS has, but they need to be at least .1 seconds or .001 minutes to be useful. Datum should be WGS-84 (almost always the default) I'll be happy to evaluate, track and publish any results. I'm not doing this for money, it's just a hobby project, so I'm not asking anyone to work for me for free. Since lots of people fool around with Google Earth for navigation, I just thought it would be useful to everyone to know the actual accuracy. Charlie Phillips, Portland, OR