Satellite images are essentially the eyes in the sky. Some of the recent satellites, such as WorldView-3, provide images with a spatial resolution of 0.3 meters. This satellite with a revisit time of under 24 hours can scan a new image of the exact location with every revisit.

Spatial resolution explained Spatial resolution is the size of the physical dimension that can be represented on a pixel of the image. Or in other words, spatial resolution is a measure of the smallest object that the sensor can resolve measured in meters. Generally, spatial resolution can be divided into three categories:

– Low resolution: over 60m/pixel. (useful for regional perspectives such as monitoring larger forest areas)

– Medium resolution: 10‒30m/pixel. (Useful for monitoring crop fields or smaller forest patches)

– High to very high resolution: 0.30‒5m/pixel. (Useful for monitoring smaller objects like buildings, narrow streets, or vehicles)

Based on the application of the imagery for the final product, a choice can be made on the resolution, as labor intensity from person-hours to computing power required increases with the resolution of the imagery.

Declassified satellite images provide an important worldwide record of land-surface change. With the success of the first release of classified satellite photography in 1995, images from U.S. military intelligence satellites KH-7 and KH-9 were declassified in accordance with Executive Order 12951 in 2002. The data were originally used for cartographic information and reconnaissance for U.S. intelligence agencies. Since the images could be of historical value for global change research and were no longer critical to national security, the collection was made available to the public. Keyhole (KH) satellite systems KH-7 and KH-9 acquired photographs of the Earth’s surface with a telescopic camera system and transported the exposed film through the use of recovery capsules. The capsules or buckets were de-orbited and retrieved by aircraft while the capsules parachuted to earth. The exposed film was developed and the images were analyzed for a range of military applications. The KH-7 surveillance system was a high resolution imaging system that was operational from July 1963 to June 1967. Approximately 18,000 black-and-white images and 230 color images are available from the 38 missions flown during this program. Key features for this program were larger area of coverage and improved ground resolution. The cameras acquired imagery in continuous lengthwise sweeps of the terrain. KH-7 images are 9 inches wide, vary in length from 4 inches to 500 feet long, and have a resolution of 2 to 4 feet. The KH-9 mapping program was operational from March 1973 to October 1980 and was designed to support mapping requirements and exact positioning of geographical points for the military. This was accomplished by using image overlap for stereo coverage and by using a camera system with a reseau grid to correct image distortion. The KH-9 framing cameras produced 9 x 18 inch imagery at a resolution of 20-30 feet. Approximately 29,000 mapping images were acquired from 12 missions. The original film sources are maintained by the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). Duplicate film sources held in the USGS EROS Center archive are used to produce digital copies of the imagery.

Metadata: NOAA GOES-R Series Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI) Level 1b RadiancesMore information about this imagery can be found here.This satellite imagery combines data from the NOAA GOES East and West satellites and the JMA Himawari satellite, providing full coverage of weather events for most of the world, from the west coast of Africa west to the east coast of India. The tile service updates to the most recent image every 10 minutes at 1.5 km per pixel resolution.The infrared (IR) band detects radiation that is emitted by the Earth’s surface, atmosphere and clouds, in the “infrared window” portion of the spectrum. The radiation has a wavelength near 10.3 micrometers, and the term “window” means that it passes through the atmosphere with relatively little absorption by gases such as water vapor. It is useful for estimating the emitting temperature of the Earth’s surface and cloud tops. A major advantage of the IR band is that it can sense energy at night, so this imagery is available 24 hours a day.The Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI) instrument samples the radiance of the Earth in sixteen spectral bands using several arrays of detectors in the instrument’s focal plane. Single reflective band ABI Level 1b Radiance Products (channels 1 - 6 with approximate center wavelengths 0.47, 0.64, 0.865, 1.378, 1.61, 2.25 microns, respectively) are digital maps of outgoing radiance values at the top of the atmosphere for visible and near-infrared (IR) bands. Single emissive band ABI L1b Radiance Products (channels 7 - 16 with approximate center wavelengths 3.9, 6.185, 6.95, 7.34, 8.5, 9.61, 10.35, 11.2, 12.3, 13.3 microns, respectively) are digital maps of outgoing radiance values at the top of the atmosphere for IR bands. Detector samples are compressed, packetized and down-linked to the ground station as Level 0 data for conversion to calibrated, geo-located pixels (Level 1b Radiance data). The detector samples are decompressed, radiometrically corrected, navigated and resampled onto an invariant output grid, referred to as the ABI fixed grid.McIDAS merge technique and color mapping provided by the Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies (Space Science and Engineering Center, University of Wisconsin - Madison) using satellite data from SSEC Satellite Data Services and the McIDAS visualization software.

A Web Map of Satellite Imagery taken from a variety of sources. Credit goes to Maxar, Earthstar Geographics, CNES/Airbus DS, USDA, USGS, AeroGRID, IGN, and the GIS User Community for the provision of the imagery.This web map contains the World Imagery (Firefly) layer which presents an alternative view of the World Imagery map designed to be used as a neutral imagery basemap, with de-saturated colors, that is useful for overlaying other brightly styled layers. This map is intended to support 'firefly cartography' and other cartographic designs that require a neutral background, with the spatial context and texture of imagery, to contrast with the foreground thematic layers that are designed to capture the users attention.Content meant to provide spatial context (the basemap) should recede in visual priority, helping to establish the thematic layers that they support (rather than compete with them). There are many ways to sufficiently mute your basemap, but for satellite imagery, de-saturation is a nice option. An image that is all or mostly black and white won’t compete as much with the brightly colored thematic data that it supports. With this map, the color of the imagery is mostly removed at the smallest global scales and then gradually re-introduced at the larger scales, where the full detail of the imagery is available.

World Imagery provides one meter or better satellite and aerial imagery for most of the world’s landmass and lower resolution satellite imagery worldwide. The map is currently comprised of the following sources: Worldwide 15-m resolution TerraColor imagery at small and medium map scales.Maxar imagery basemap products around the world: Vivid Premium at 15-cm HD resolution for select metropolitan areas, Vivid Advanced 30-cm HD for more than 1,000 metropolitan areas, and Vivid Standard from 1.2-m to 0.6-cm resolution for the most of the world, with 30-cm HD across the United States and parts of Western Europe. More information on the Maxar products is included below. High-resolution aerial photography contributed by the GIS User Community. This imagery ranges from 30-cm to 3-cm resolution. You can contribute your imagery to this map and have it served by Esri via the Community Maps Program. Maxar Basemap ProductsVivid PremiumProvides committed image currency in a high-resolution, high-quality image layer over defined metropolitan and high-interest areas across the globe. The product provides 15-cm HD resolution imagery.Vivid AdvancedProvides committed image currency in a high-resolution, high-quality image layer over defined metropolitan and high-interest areas across the globe. The product includes a mix of native 30-cm and 30-cm HD resolution imagery.Vivid StandardProvides a visually consistent and continuous image layer over large areas through advanced image mosaicking techniques, including tonal balancing and seamline blending across thousands of image strips. Available from 1.2-m down to 30-cm HD. More on Maxar HD. Imagery UpdatesYou can use the Updates Mode in the World Imagery Wayback app to learn more about recent and pending updates. Accessing this information requires a user login with an ArcGIS organizational account. CitationsThis layer includes imagery provider, collection date, resolution, accuracy, and source of the imagery. With the Identify tool in ArcGIS Desktop or the ArcGIS Online Map Viewer you can see imagery citations. Citations returned apply only to the available imagery at that location and scale. You may need to zoom in to view the best available imagery. Citations can also be accessed in the World Imagery with Metadata web map.UseYou can add this layer to the ArcGIS Online Map Viewer, ArcGIS Desktop, or ArcGIS Pro. To view this layer with a useful reference overlay, open the Imagery Hybrid web map.FeedbackHave you ever seen a problem in the Esri World Imagery Map that you wanted to report? You can use the Imagery Map Feedback web map to provide comments on issues. The feedback will be reviewed by the ArcGIS Online team and considered for one of our updates.

Detecting Landscape Objects on Satellite Images with Artificial Intelligence In recent years, there has been a significant increase in the use of artificial intelligence (AI) for image recognition and object detection. This technology has proven to be useful in a wide range of applications, from self-driving cars to facial recognition systems. In this project, the focus lies on using AI to detect landscape objects in satellite images (aerial photography angle) with the goal to create an annotated map of The Netherlands with all the coordinates of the given landscape objects.

Background Information

Problem Statement One of the things that Naturalis does is conducting research into the distribution of wild bees (Naturalis, n.d.). For their research they use a model that predicts whether or not a certain species can occur at a given location. Representing the real world in a digital form, there is at the moment not yet a way to generate an inventory of landscape features such as presence of trees, ponds and hedges, with their precise location on the digital map. The current models rely on species observation data and climate variables, but it is expected that adding detailed physical landscape information could increase the prediction accuracy. Common maps do not contain this level of detail, but high-resolution satellite images do.

Possible opportunities Based on the problem statement, there is at the moment at Naturalis not a map that does contain the level of detail where detection of landscape elements could be made, according to their wishes. The idea emerged that it should be possible to use satellite images to find the locations of small landscape elements and produce an annotated map. Therefore, by refining the accuracy of the current prediction model, researchers can gain a profound understanding of wild bees in the Netherlands with the goal to take effective measurements to protect wild bees and their living environment.

Goal of project The goal of the project is to develop an artificial intelligence model for landscape detection on satellite images to create an annotated map of The Netherlands that would therefore increase the accuracy prediction of the current model that is used at Naturalis. The project aims to address the problem of a lack of detailed maps of landscapes that could revolutionize the way Naturalis conduct their research on wild bees. Therefore, the ultimate aim of the project in the long term is to utilize the comprehensive knowledge to protect both the wild bees population and their natural habitats in the Netherlands.

Data Collection Google Earth One of the main challenges of this project was the difficulty in obtaining a qualified dataset (with or without data annotation). Obtaining high-quality satellite images for the project presents challenges in terms of cost and time. The costs in obtaining high-quality satellite images of the Netherlands is 1,038,575 $ in total (for further details and information of the costs of satellite images. On top of that, the acquisition process for such images involves various steps, from the initial request to the actual delivery of the images, numerous protocols and processes need to be followed.

After conducting further research, the best possible solution was to use Google Earth as the primary source of data. While Google Earth is not allowed to be used for commercial or promotional purposes, this project is for research purposes only for Naturalis on their research of wild bees, hence the regulation does not apply in this case.

This dataset provides a seamless cloud-free 10m resolution satellite imagery layer of the New Zealand mainland and offshore islands.

The imagery was captured by the European Space Agency Sentinel-2 satellites between September 2023 - April 2024.

Data comprises: • 450 ortho-rectified RGB GeoTIFF images in NZTM projection, tiled into the LINZ Standard 1:50000 tile layout. • Satellite sensors: ESA Sentinel-2A and Sentinel-2B • Acquisition dates: September 2023 - April 2024 • Spectral resolution: R, G, B • Spatial resolution: 10 meters • Radiometric resolution: 8-bits (downsampled from 12-bits)

This is a visual product only. The data has been downsampled from 12-bits to 8-bits, and the original values of the images have been modified for visualisation purposes.

If you require the 12-bit imagery (R, G, B, NIR bands), send your request to imagery@linz.govt.nz

The satellite image of Canada is a composite of several individual satellite images form the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometre (AVHRR) sensor on board various NOAA Satellites. The colours reflect differences in the density of vegetation cover: bright green for dense vegetation in humid southern regions; yellow for semi-arid and for mountainous regions; brown for the north where vegetation cover is very sparse; and white for snow and ice. An inset map shows a satellite image mosaic of North America with 35 land cover classes, based on data from the SPOT satellite VGT (vegetation) sensor.

Since 1972, the joint NASA/ U.S. Geological Survey Landsat series of Earth Observation satellites have continuously acquired images of the Earth’s land surface, providing uninterrupted data to help land managers and policymakers make informed decisions about natural resources and the environment.

Landsat is a part of the USGS National Land Imaging (NLI) Program. To support analysis of the Landsat long-term data record that began in 1972, the USGS. Landsat data archive was reorganized into a formal tiered data collection structure. This structure ensures all Landsat Level 1 products provide a consistent archive of known data quality to support time-series analysis and data “stacking”, while controlling continuous improvement of the archive, and access to all data as they are acquired. Collection 1 Level 1 processing began in August 2016 and continued until all archived data was processed, completing May 2018. Newly-acquired Landsat 8 and Landsat 7 data continue to be processed into Collection 1 shortly after data is downlinked to USGS EROS.

Acknowledgement or credit of the USGS as data source should be provided by including a line of text citation such as the example shown below. (Product, Image, Photograph, or Dataset Name) courtesy of the U.S. Geological Survey Example: Landsat-8 image courtesy of the U.S. Geological Survey

This dataset contains remote sensing data for every village in the state of Bihar, India. For most of these villages, the data contains the corresponding electrification rate as reported by the Garv data platform from the Indian government as of July 2017. This dataset contains satellite imagery, political boundaries, lights at night imagery, rainfall measurements, and vegetation indices data for 45,220 villages and the electrification rate data for 32,817 of those villages. This dataset may be of particular interest to those investigating how electricity access maps to infrastructure and agricultural production. This dataset was compiled as part of the Summer 2017 Duke University Data+ team, titled "Electricity Access in Developing Countries from Aerial Imagery."

The cost of acquiring a satellite data was highest for the images from the GeoEye-1 satellite at 25 U.S. dollars per square kilometer of the image. Most of the satellite data have a minimum order quantities based on the company and the cost depends mostly on the spatial resolution of the satellite image.

Most of the satellites are commercially owned and provide users with data as an end product based on the requirement. Processing smaller patches of the raw images obtained from a satellite to an end product are not profitable. Hence, there is a minimum order limit of 25 to 50 square kilometers based on the requested product.

This image service contains high resolution satellite imagery for selected regions throughout the Yukon. Imagery is 1m pixel resolution, or better. Imagery was supplied by the Government of Yukon, and the Canadian Department of National Defense. All the imagery in this service is licensed. If you have any questions about Yukon government satellite imagery, please contact Geomatics.Help@gov.yk.can. This service is managed by Geomatics Yukon.

The size of the India Satellite Imagery Services market was valued at USD XXX Million in 2023 and is projected to reach USD XXX Million by 2032, with an expected CAGR of 17.43% during the forecast period.The satellite image services primarily include acquisition, processing, analysis, and interpretation to extract useful information. This high-resolution information obtained and captured from Earth-orbiting satellites indicates aspects pertaining to land use and development in urban areas, agriculture, natural resources, and climate change.Indian satellite image services are achieving an exponential growth rate as they meet the increasing demand of various sectors. These sat data are increasingly being used by governments for urban planning, disaster management, and border surveillance. Agriculture uses satellite data to monitor crop growth, estimate yields, and carry out precision farming, while resource exploration and environmental impact assessments are common applications of satellite imagery in the mining and energy sectors. Telecommunications and the GIS industries depend on satellite imagery to plan networks and map areas.The growth of the Indian market is due to the focus of the Indian government on space technology and its initiatives to encourage the use of satellite data. There is vast potential and promising applications of satellite imagery services in the country of India, as there has been a rising advancement in technology along with sophistication of techniques in data analysis. Recent developments include: January 2023: The Indian Space Research Organization's National Remote Sensing Center released satellite images of Joshimath, a town in Uttarakhand that is slowly sinking due to land subsidence, and the images show that a rapid subsidence of 5.4 cm was observed in a span of twelve days between December last week and January first week., June 2022: Pataa Navigations, an India-based software firm, and Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre (IN-SPACe) signed an MoU to enable access to ISRO's Geospatial Services and APIs for the creation of an addressing system during the opening of the In-Space headquarters. The company would launch an addressing revolution in India by providing access to satellite image-based digital addresses. Through this MoU, the partnership would be for the ISRO portals Bhuvan, VEDAS, and MOSDAC services.. Key drivers for this market are: Government Initiatives to Foster the Growth of Satellite Imagery Services in India, Increasing Importance on Disaster Management and Mitigation Efforts. Potential restraints include: Affordability and Accessibility might restrain the Market Growth, Limited Standardization and Interoperability. Notable trends are: Government Initiatives to Foster the Growth of Satellite Imagery Services in India.

This item provides cached tile imagery which shows the City of Tempe and surrounding areas. Imagery was captured in late 2018 and early 2019.Tiles are provided from zoom levels 0 to 22 (1:141) using the ArcGIS Online / Bing / Google Maps tiling scheme.

The Brazil Satellite Imagery Services Market report segments the industry into By Application (Geospatial Data Acquisition and Mapping, Natural Resource Management, Surveillance and Security, Conservation and Research, Disaster Management, Intelligence) and By End-User (Government, Construction, Transportation and Logistics, Military and Defense, Forestry and Agriculture, Other End-Users).

Contained within the 5th Edition (1978 to 1995) of the National Atlas of Canada is a map that shows Canada as seen from space in August, 1990 using uninterrupted 1.1 kilometer resolution imagery; final colors are adjusted to approximate those of the land cover portrayed.

SENTINEL-2 is a wide-swath, high-resolution, multi-spectral imaging mission, supporting Copernicus Land Monitoring studies, including the monitoring of vegetation, soil and water cover, as well as observation of inland waterways and coastal areas.

The SENTINEL-2 Multispectral Instrument (MSI) samples 13 spectral bands: four bands at 10 metres, six bands at 20 metres and three bands at 60 metres spatial resolution.

The acquired data, mission coverage and high revisit frequency provides for the generation of geoinformation at local, regional, national and international scales. The data is designed to be modified and adapted by users interested in thematic areas such as: • spatial planning • agro-environmental monitoring • water monitoring • forest and vegetation monitoring • land carbon, natural resource monitoring • global crop monitoring

The UAE Satellite Imagery Services Market report segments the industry into Application (Geospatial Data Acquisition and Mapping, Natural Resource Management, Surveillance and Security, Conservation and Research, Disaster Management, Intelligence) and End-User (Government, Construction, Transportation and Logistics, Military and Defense, Forestry and Agriculture, Other End-Users).

This hosted tile layer provides aerial imagery for the City of Tempe. Imagery was taken in September 2017 and originally published May 2018.

This data set contains high-resolution QuickBird imagery and geospatial data for the entire Barrow QuickBird image area (156.15° W - 157.07° W, 71.15° N - 71.41° N) and Barrow B4 Quadrangle (156.29° W - 156.89° W, 71.25° N - 71.40° N), for use in Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and remote sensing software. The original QuickBird data sets were acquired by DigitalGlobe from 1 to 2 August 2002, and consist of orthorectified satellite imagery. Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC)-compliant metadata for all value-added data sets are provided in text, HTML, and XML formats.

Accessory layers include: 1:250,000- and 1:63,360-scale USGS Digital Raster Graphic (DRG) mosaic images (GeoTIFF format); 1:250,000- and 1:63,360-scale USGS quadrangle index maps (ESRI Shapefile format); an index map for the 62 QuickBird tiles (ESRI Shapefile format); and a simple polygon layer of the extent of the Barrow QuickBird image area and the Barrow B4 quadrangle area (ESRI Shapefile format).

Unmodified QuickBird data comprise 62 data tiles in Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM) Zone 4 in GeoTIFF format. Standard release files describing the QuickBird data are included, along with the DigitalGlobe license agreement and product handbooks.

The baseline geospatial data support education, outreach, and multi-disciplinary research of environmental change in Barrow, which is an area of focused scientific interest. Data are provided on four DVDs. This product is available only to investigators funded specifically from the National Science Foundation (NSF), Office of Polar Programs (OPP), Arctic Sciences Section. An NSF OPP award number must be provided when ordering this data. Contact NSIDC User Services at nsidc@nsidc.org to order the data, and include an NSF OPP award number in the email.