World Imagery provides one meter or better satellite and aerial imagery in many parts of the world and lower resolution satellite imagery worldwide. The map includes 15m TerraColor imagery at small and mid-scales (~1:591M down to ~1:72k) and 2.5m SPOT Imagery (~1:288k to ~1:72k) for the world. The map features 0.5m resolution imagery in the continental United States and parts of Western Europe from DigitalGlobe. Additional DigitalGlobe sub-meter imagery is featured in many parts of the world. In the United States, 1 meter or better resolution NAIP imagery is available in some areas. In other parts of the world, imagery at different resolutions has been contributed by the GIS User Community. In select communities, very high resolution imagery (down to 0.03m) is available down to ~1:280 scale. You can contribute your imagery to this map and have it served by Esri via the Community Maps Program. View the list of Contributors for the World Imagery Map.CoverageView the links below to learn more about recent updates and map coverage:What's new in World ImageryWorld coverage mapCitationsThis 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. A similar raster web map, Imagery with Labels, is also available.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.
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.
World Imagery provides one meter or better satellite and aerial imagery in many parts of the world and lower resolution satellite imagery worldwide. The map includes 15-meter TerraColor imagery at small and mid-scales (~1:591M down to ~1:288k) for the world. The map features Maxar imagery at 0.3-meter resolution for select metropolitan areas around the world, 0.5-meter resolution across the United States and parts of Western Europe, and 0.6-meter resolution imagery across the rest of the world. In addition to commercial sources, the World Imagery map features high-resolution aerial photography contributed by the GIS User Community. This imagery ranges from 0.3-meter to 0.03-meter resolution, down to ~1:280 in select communities. You can contribute your imagery to this map and have it served by Esri via the Community Maps Program.Updates and CoverageYou can use the World Imagery Updates app to learn more about recent updates and map coverage.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 (WGS84) 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.Precise Tile RegistrationThe World Imagery map uses the improved tiling scheme “WGS84 Geographic, Version 2” to ensure proper tile positioning at higher resolutions (neighborhood level and beyond). The new tiling scheme is much more precise than tiling schemes of the legacy basemaps Esri released years ago. We recommend that you start using this new basemap for any new web maps in WGS84 that you plan to author. Due to the number of differences between the old and new tiling schemes, some web clients will not be able to overlay tile layers in the old and new tiling schemes in one web map.
Wayback imagery is a digital archive of the World Imagery basemap, enabling users to access more than 100 different versions of World Imagery archived over the past 10 years. Each record in the archive represents a version of World Imagery as it existed on the date it was published.This app offers a dynamic Wayback browsing and discovery experience where previous versions of the World Imagery basemap are presented within the map, along a timeline, and as a list. Versions that resulted in local changes are dynamically presented to the user based on location and scale. Preview changes by hovering over and/or selecting individual layers. When ready, one or more Wayback layers can be added to an export queue and pushed to a new ArcGIS Online web map. Browse, preview, select, and create, it’s all there!For more information on Wayback check out these articles.You can also find every Wayback tile layer in the Wayback imagery group.
This layer is designed to support exporting small volumes of basemap tiles for offline use. The content of this layer is equivalent to World Imagery. World Imagery provides one meter or better satellite and aerial imagery in many parts of the world and lower resolution satellite imagery worldwide. See World Imagery for more details.The map service supporting this layer will enable you to export up to 150,000 tiles in a single request. For estimation purposes, this is large enough to support the export of:Large city (e.g. San Francisco) down to full level of detail at ~1:1,000 scale (Level 19)Medium size state or province (e.g. Colorado) down to scale of ~1:36,000 (Level 14)Medium to large country (e.g. Continental United States) down to scale of ~1:288,000 (Level 11)This layer is not intended to be used to display live map tiles for use in a web map or web mapping application. To display map tiles, please use World Imagery basemap.Service Information for DevelopersTo export tiles for World Imagery, you must use the instance of the World_Imagery service hosted on the tiledbasemaps.arcgis.com server referenced by this layer (see URL in Contents below), which has the Export Tiles operation enabled. This layer is intended to support export of basemap tiles for offline use in ArcGIS applications and other applications built with an ArcGIS Runtime SDK.
World Imagery provides one meter or better satellite and aerial imagery in many parts of the world and lower resolution satellite imagery worldwide. The map includes 15m TerraColor imagery at small and mid-scales (~1:591M down to ~1:288k) for the world. The map features Maxar imagery at 0.3m resolution for select metropolitan areas around the world, 0.5m resolution across the United States and parts of Western Europe, and 1m resolution imagery across the rest of the world. In addition to commercial sources, the World Imagery map features high-resolution aerial photography contributed by the GIS User Community. This imagery ranges from 0.3m to 0.03m resolution (down to ~1:280 in select communities). For more information on this map, including the terms of use, visit us online at https://goto.arcgisonline.com/maps/World_Imagery
Wayback is a digital archive, providing users with access to the different versions of World Imagery created over time. Each layer in the archive represents a snapshot of the entire World Imagery map, as it existed on the date it was published. This Wayback layer is the June 26, 2025 version of World Imagery. See World Imagery (Wayback 2025-06-26) Metadata for detailed information about each image source in this layer.World Imagery provides one meter or better satellite and aerial imagery for much of the world, and lower resolution satellite imagery worldwide. As World Imagery is updated with more current imagery, new versions of the map are published. When and where updates occur, the previous imagery is replaced and is no longer visible. For many use cases, the new imagery is more desirable and typically preferred. Other times, however, the previous imagery may support use cases that the new imagery does not. In these cases, a user may need to access a previous version of World Imagery.Wayback currently provides access to all published versions of World Imagery, dating back to February 20, 2014. There is an ArcGIS Online item for every version which can be viewed in the Wayback Imagery group.
World Imagery provides one meter or better satellite and aerial imagery in many parts of the world and lower resolution satellite imagery worldwide. The map includes 15m TerraColor imagery at small and mid-scales (~1:591M down to ~1:288k) for the world. The map features Maxar imagery at 0.3m resolution for select metropolitan areas around the world, 0.5m resolution across the United States and parts of Western Europe, and 1m resolution imagery across the rest of the world. In addition to commercial sources, the World Imagery map features high-resolution aerial photography contributed by the GIS User Community. This imagery ranges from 0.3m to 0.03m resolution (down to ~1:280 in select communities). For more information on this map, including the terms of use, visit us online at http://goto.arcgisonline.com/maps/World_Imagery
World Imagery provides one meter or better satellite and aerial imagery in many parts of the world and lower resolution satellite imagery worldwide. The map includes 15m TerraColor imagery at small and mid-scales (~1:591M down to ~1:72k) and 2.5m SPOT Imagery (~1:288k to ~1:72k) for the world. The map features 0.5m resolution imagery in the continental United States and parts of Western Europe from Maxar. Additional Maxar sub-meter imagery is featured in many parts of the world. In the United States, 1 meter or better resolution NAIP imagery is available in some areas. In other parts of the world, imagery at different resolutions has been contributed by the GIS User Community. In select communities, very high resolution imagery (down to 0.03m) is available down to ~1:280 scale. You can contribute your imagery to this map and have it served by Esri via the Community Maps Program. View the list of Contributors for the World Imagery Map.See World Imagery for more information on this map.Metadata: Point and click on the map to see the resolution, collection date, and source of the imagery. Values of "99999" mean that metadata is not available for that field. The metadata applies only to the best available imagery at that location. You may need to zoom in to view the best available imagery.Feedback: Have you ever seen a problem in the Esri World Imagery Map that you wanted to see fixed? You can use the Imagery Map Feedback web map to provide feedback on issues or errors that you see. The feedback will be reviewed by the ArcGIS Online team and considered for one of our updates.Need Newer Imagery?: If you need to access more recent or higher resolution imagery, you can find and order that in the Content Store for ArcGIS app.Learn MoreGet AccessOpen App
Mature Support Notice: This item is in mature support as of January 2022. Past versions of World Imagery, including the imagery found in this item, can be found in World Imagery Wayback. This map features the World Imagery (Clarity) tile layer as a basemap layer with the hybrid reference overlay. The World Imagery (Clarity) layer presents imagery from our archive that may be more clear and/or accurate than what is presented in the World Imagery map. See the the World Imagery (Clarity) layer and the Hybrid Reference Layer for more information about this map.
This is a subset of World Imagery (Firefly).This layer 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.
This web map contains the same layers as the Imagery with Labels basemap that is available in the basemap gallery of ArcGIS.com's map viewer, ArcGIS Explorer Online, ArcGIS Explorer Desktop, and the mobile clients. The Imagery with Labels basemap contains the World Imagery map service with the Boundaries and Places map service drawn on top. When you use this basemap in a web map, any map services that you add into the map get sandwiched between the imagery and the labels drawn on top, so this is a good basemap you use if you want to see services that don't contain their own labels with imagery drawn behind them and reference labels drawn on top.This web map also includes the World Transportation map service. This service shows streets, roads and highways and their names. When you zoom in to the highest level of detail the lines disappear and you just see the street names and road numbers.Feedback: Have you ever seen a problem in the Esri World Imagery Map that you wanted to see fixed? You can use the Imagery Map Feedback web map to provide feedback on issues or errors that you see. The feedback will be reviewed by the ArcGIS Online team and considered for one of our updates.Tip: This same web map is also available with transportation and road names turned on: Imagery with Labels and Transportation.Tip: Here are some famous locations as they appear in this web map, accessed by including their location in the URL that launches the map:Grand Canyon, Arizona, USAGolden Gate, California, USATaj Mahal, Agra, IndiaVatican CityBronze age white horse, Uffington, UKUluru (Ayres Rock), AustraliaMachu Picchu, Cusco, PeruOkavango Delta, Botswana
This map features the World Imagery map, focused on the Carribean region. World Imagery provides one meter or better satellite and aerial imagery in many parts of the world and lower resolution satellite imagery worldwide. The map includes 15m TerraColor imagery at small and mid-scales (~1:591M down to ~1:72k) and 2.5m SPOT Imagery (~1:288k to ~1:72k) for the world. DigitalGlobe sub-meter imagery is featured in many parts of the world, including Africa. Sub-meter Pléiades imagery is available in select urban areas. Additionally, imagery at different resolutions has been contributed by the GIS User Community.
For more information on this map, view the World Imagery item description.
Metadata: This service is metadata-enabled. With the Identify tool in ArcMap or the World Imagery with Metadata web map, you can see the resolution, collection date, and source of the imagery at the location you click. Values of "99999" mean that metadata is not available for that field. The metadata applies only to the best available imagery at that location. You may need to zoom in to view the best available imagery.
Feedback: Have you ever seen a problem in the Esri World Imagery Map that you wanted to see fixed? You can use the Imagery Map Feedback web map to provide feedback on issues or errors that you see. The feedback will be reviewed by the ArcGIS Online team and considered for one of our updates.
This app enables you to compare different views of the World Imagery map. The default World Imagery map, on the left, is designed to show the most recent imagery. The alternative World Imagery (Clarity) map, on the right, is designed to show other imagery from our archive that may be more clear or accurate. You can use the tabs to view different bookmarked locations, or the search tool to view other areas. Click on the maps to get metadata info for the imagery.
This web map is a subset of World Imagery Layer. World Imagery provides one meter or better satellite and aerial imagery in many parts of the world and lower resolution satellite imagery worldwide. The map includes 15-meter TerraColor imagery at small and mid-scales (~1:591M down to ~1:288k) for the world. The map features Maxar imagery at 0.3-meter resolution for select metropolitan areas around the world, 0.5-meter resolution across the United States and parts of Western Europe, and 0.6-1.2-meter resolution imagery across the rest of the world. In addition to commercial sources, the World Imagery map features high-resolution aerial photography contributed by the GIS User Community. This imagery ranges from 0.3-meter to 0.03-meter resolution, down to ~1:280 in select communities. You can contribute your imagery to this map and have it served by Esri via the Community Maps Program.Updates and CoverageYou can use the World Imagery Updates app to learn more about recent updates and map coverage.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.
This web map contains the new Hybrid Reference Layer vector tile layer, which is designed to be used to overlay imagery. The vector tile layer is similar in content and style to the popular Imagery with Labels map, which is delivered as a map service with raster tiles, with additional labels for transportation features.The 'Imagery with Labels' basemap contains the World Imagery map service and the World Boundaries and Places map service, so when you use that basemap you get boundaries and places, but you don't get highways and streets at small scales or street labels at large scale.If you prefer a map that uses raster tiles for both boundary and transportation features, you can use the Imagery with Labels and Transportation map.
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 *** meters. This satellite with a revisit time of under ** 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: ****‒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.
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.
Important Note: This item is in mature support. There are new versions of basemaps available for your use. Esri recommends updating your maps and apps to use the appropriate new version. This map features satellite and high-resolution aerial imagery for the world with political boundaries and place names for reference purposes. The map is intended to support the ArcGIS Online basemap gallery. For more details on the map, please visit the World Imagery and World Boundaries and Places map service descriptions.
This tile layer is designed to present imagery from our archive that may be more clear and/or accurate than what is presented in our default World Imagery map. The World Imagery map is designed to present our most recent, high-quality imagery available. This layer presents an alternative view, enabling users to access imagery from our archive that may not be otherwise be available. The imagery in this view may be less current than the default imagery (e.g. more than 3-5 years old), but support use cases (e.g. data collection) where the image clarity or accuracy is more important. In areas where the most recent imagery is also the clearest and/or most accurate available, the same imagery will be presented in both views.You have access to multiple views of the World Imagery map as separate tile layers and web maps, allowing you to select the most appropriate view of the imagery for your intended use.
World Imagery provides one meter or better satellite and aerial imagery in many parts of the world and lower resolution satellite imagery worldwide. The map includes 15m TerraColor imagery at small and mid-scales (~1:591M down to ~1:72k) and 2.5m SPOT Imagery (~1:288k to ~1:72k) for the world. The map features 0.5m resolution imagery in the continental United States and parts of Western Europe from DigitalGlobe. Additional DigitalGlobe sub-meter imagery is featured in many parts of the world. In the United States, 1 meter or better resolution NAIP imagery is available in some areas. In other parts of the world, imagery at different resolutions has been contributed by the GIS User Community. In select communities, very high resolution imagery (down to 0.03m) is available down to ~1:280 scale. You can contribute your imagery to this map and have it served by Esri via the Community Maps Program. View the list of Contributors for the World Imagery Map.CoverageView the links below to learn more about recent updates and map coverage:What's new in World ImageryWorld coverage mapCitationsThis 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. A similar raster web map, Imagery with Labels, is also available.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.