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Zoom Earth: Website lets you look at live satellite photos of earths surface

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Re: Zoom Earth: Website lets you look at live satellite photos of earths surface

#11

Post by jjulius »

supernova87a wrote: post #7
qeternity wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well the only way to get “live” imagery at any level of perceptible detail is to be a three letter agency. Even the highest levels of private sector aren’t tasking satellites with that level of latency.

Sure, that's fair. But what / who then are they trying to sell the idea of with the phrase "live"? Is any average person really interested in a "live" view of the whole Earth, such that it would be meaningfully different or changed compared to the static blue marble photo we're all familiar with? I think we all know what we're interested in when we think of "live"... things at the <<1km level.

Sure, we can't zoom in, but I thought that this was pretty cool. Yeah we've seen photos of the planet from a distance, but printed maps and Google/Apple/et. al.'s map software condition us to forget about how widespread cloud cover is. So, to me, an "average person", it's interesting to see the world "as-is" right now - the various storms around the world, the fact that the cloud cover near my house is something I only ever think about locally but, upon viewing this, is so obviously part of a much, much bigger system that extends thousands of miles beyond my locale, the neat kind of horizontal "line" of clouds stretching around the planet along the equator, etc.

Yeah, I'm not going to spend a lot of time checking this out, but it's still really neat for a few minutes.

Edit: User qeternity responded to your post as well, and I'll also echo their comment about how seeing this whole planet as something that's minutes old building a strong connection/appreciation is another great point.

Re: Zoom Earth: Website lets you look at live satellite photos of earths surface

#12

Post by kyle_morris_ »

arkanciscan wrote: post #5

Planet does it better https://www.planet.com/gallery/

How is planet better? Clicking on https://zoom.earth/ takes me directly to the overall imaging of the earth.

Planet seems to take you to a landing page with interesting things to look at. Not that that's bad, but interested to hear what's better about it

Re: Zoom Earth: Website lets you look at live satellite photos of earths surface

#13

Post by neave »

neave wrote: post #9
supernova87a wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, that's fair. But what / who then are they trying to sell the idea of with the phrase "live"? Is any average person really interested in a "live" view of the whole Earth, such that it would be meaningfully different or changed compared to the static blue marble photo we're all familiar with? I think we all know what we're interested in when we think of "live"... things at the <<1km level.

I'm the developer of Zoom Earth. "Live" is shorthand for "near real-time". But, you're right. Most visitors simply want to see their house from space. Which is understandable, but also kinda depressing. They could look at _anywhere in the world in near realtime_, but they wanna see what their roof or garden looks like. Meteorologists love it though.

Also, it's good for monitoring wildfires. For example, here are fires currently raging in the Arctic: https://zoom.earth/#view=67.86,151.46,6z/date=2020-07-20,am/...

Re: Zoom Earth: Website lets you look at live satellite photos of earths surface

#14

Post by supernova87a »

jjulius wrote: post #11
supernova87a wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, that's fair. But what / who then are they trying to sell the idea of with the phrase "live"? Is any average person really interested in a "live" view of the whole Earth, such that it would be meaningfully different or changed compared to the static blue marble photo we're all familiar with? I think we all know what we're interested in when we think of "live"... things at the <<1km level.

Sure, we can't zoom in, but I thought that this was pretty cool. Yeah we've seen photos of the planet from a distance, but printed maps and Google/Apple/et. al.'s map software condition us to forget about how widespread cloud cover is. So, to me, an "average person", it's interesting to see the world "as-is" right now - the various storms around the world, the fact that the cloud cover near my house is something I on…

I mean, at this level, it's not that different from Google Maps satellite view, right? I can see years/months-old imagery there too.

Re: Zoom Earth: Website lets you look at live satellite photos of earths surface

#15

Post by pj_mukh »

supernova87a wrote: post #7
qeternity wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well the only way to get “live” imagery at any level of perceptible detail is to be a three letter agency. Even the highest levels of private sector aren’t tasking satellites with that level of latency.

Sure, that's fair. But what / who then are they trying to sell the idea of with the phrase "live"? Is any average person really interested in a "live" view of the whole Earth, such that it would be meaningfully different or changed compared to the static blue marble photo we're all familiar with? I think we all know what we're interested in when we think of "live"... things at the <<1km level.

I for one would love to get a live view of the lineup at my nearest grocery store.

Re: Zoom Earth: Website lets you look at live satellite photos of earths surface

#16

Post by geuis »

arkanciscan wrote: post #5

Planet does it better https://www.planet.com/gallery/

There’s a Planet Explorer, https://www.planet.com/explorer/. I worked on building it a few years ago. Unfortunately you have to have a Planet account and I believe those are paid only.

Re: Zoom Earth: Website lets you look at live satellite photos of earths surface

#18

Post by WarOnPrivacy »

arkanciscan wrote: post #5

Planet does it better https://www.planet.com/gallery/

I have to disagree. That giant frame on the bottom looks to be unremovable. We lose that whole half the screen to "HEY LOOK AT THIS". With that is a sticky top that keeps dropping down to cover what little viewing room we have.

Maybe I'm missing something but this looks like one of the worst layouts I've ever seen.

Re: Zoom Earth: Website lets you look at live satellite photos of earths surface

#20

Post by kfrzcode »

qeternity wrote: post #6
supernova87a wrote: post #4

I wouldn't call it the "live" you would expect (although depends on what you were expecting -- I wasn't honestly expecting a live view of "anywhere on Earth", but at least some level of detail). As soon as you zoom in to any level of It's more like a "live" view if you were to look at the entire Earth at once from the Apollo capsule...

Well the only way to get “live” imagery at any level of perceptible detail is to be a three letter agency. Even the highest levels of private sector aren’t tasking satellites with that level of latency.

Is it theoretically, and practically possible for a private company to task a satellite with this level of latency/detail? Are there laws/regulations in this regard? Or is it more a technical/financial barrier?
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