Look at the Caples Lake satellite view in the previous post. If you look closely, you can see that the Kirkwood ski runs in the lower left corner have some snow on them. Also, there is a snowy area in the center of the icture.
The snow is probably from an early winter storm. True, the snowy bits make the picture more interesting, but it wasn't like that yesterday when we were there. In mid-August after a very light snow season, there was no snow at all, even on Kirkwood's summits.
In my case, the snow difference isn't really important. If I was contributing to a serious hiking site like trails.com or everytrail.com it would be important. If I was tracking the impact of new home construction in Kirkwood Meadows, this map would be far from sufficient.
To really improve these types of applications, it would be great to add a time/date or historical perspective to the map satellite views. This would include:
- At a minimum, display the date the images were captured.
- Offer seasonal views.
- Implement some kind of slider or slide show view that shows the landscape as it changes through a complete year.
- Compare wet years vs. dry years. Same for hot and cold years or seasons.
- List significant natural events such as earthquakes, forest fires or volcanic eruptions. Let users see before and after views.
- Before and after views for human-related events such as dam and highway construction, new baseball stadiums, terrorist attacks or air pollution.
Also, implement topographic view.
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