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

zoom.earth

61–70 of 85 posts

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

#62

This is super cool! Can you see planes in flight? Could be good for tracking missing planes.

Not quite, but you can see the contrails. Example: https://zoom.earth/#view=40.174,-136.065,7z/date=2020-07-20,... Change the date to see them being created.

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

#64

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.

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?

When they were looking for the missing Malaysian airliner, there were "fresh" (I guess days old) satellite images for people to look through, although the detail level was not that great.

I think a commercial satellite imaging company supplied the images for free.

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

#65
post #56

For where I am, the latest image was taken in May, 2018

Yes, images of your house/area will be older. Near real-time imagery is only available at lower zoom levels.

It takes a long time to take satellite/aerial photos of everywhere on the planet in high resolution, so 2018 is quite good in the geospatial industry.

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

#67
post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why not just say how old each image is, like with a color overlay? “Zoom past this level and you will be looking at 400 days ago” etc

It does - imagery is dated to the nearest month from level ~12 and higher. (See top left on desktop, bottom on mobile)

From which year are the cloudless images shown when deselecting the live/daily layers? There seems to be one per month but all from the same year, right?

It's interesting to see how winter is taking hold of the planet - but a little bit disappointing that I cannot compare snowy areas between different years.

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

#68
post #67
post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It does - imagery is dated to the nearest month from level ~12 and higher. (See top left on desktop, bottom on mobile)

From which year are the cloudless images shown when deselecting the live/daily layers? There seems to be one per month but all from the same year, right? It's interesting to see how winter is taking hold of the planet - but a little bit disappointing that I cannot compare snowy areas between different years.

So live/daily is for zoom levels 0-9, and the archive goes back 20 years to 2000. Zoom in, and older imagery dates will vary based on the location.

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

#70

I've always wanted a physical globe with real-time high-res clouds. That is my personal marker of "oh, the future has arrived"

Not something in your own house just yet but how about this: https://informal.jpl.nasa.gov/museum/CP4SMP/dynamic-globe
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