Testing of Google Earth Coordinates of Points in Baghdad City

Athraa Hashim Mohammed

Abstract: The popularity of Google earth all over the world is because of its providing a source of easy access and cost free image data for people who have interest in maps, as well as the increasing depending of explorers, navigators and other users on Google earth different facilities, but in spite of that this popularity is not an indication for its accuracy. This research is focusing on the accuracy of coordinates obtained from Google earth for a number of points in Baghdad city. This was done by comparing Google earth measured coordinates of points with Total station observed coordinates over sample of eleven check points in Baghdad university district in Baghdad city. Root mean square error (RMSE) was computed for coordinates and found to be 0.465m.

Keywords: Google Earth, Total Station, GCP, positional accuracy, GPS