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Google Earth (GE) now supports, to some degree, web map services (WMS), which enables you to add map layers from a wide variety of third-party map servers. Here’s how it works. When you zoom to a particular geographic area in GE, it makes a request to the third-party server for a map of that region. The server then renders a map image, like a jpeg image from your digital camera, and sends it back to the GE software on your computer. The down side of having access to all of these layers is the slower speed. Each time you move the map, GE must make another request to the server, which must then render another image and send it back to you.

Several WMS layers Google Earth are bundled together in one downloadable package, which includes:

• National Hydrography Dataset flow lines, water bodies, and watershed boundaries (more info here)
• Weather radar maps from Nexrad (see also NOAA / NWS radar maps for better performance)
• Topographical maps (served by Microsoft's TerraServer)
• Federal public lands and wilderness areas

Click here for instructions on adding additional WMS layers to Google Earth.

Note that many WMS map layers will not display until you zoom in to a fairly small geographic region

Click here to download these map layers