Brian Cassil Posted July 12, 2007 Share Posted July 12, 2007 Does anyone have suggestions on where to get good quality, high resolution satellite images? I need a really large area so google earth wont cut it because all the images there are chopped up into images that were taken at different times of year, etc. I've checked out terraserver and it looks OK but $65 for a single 2500x2500 pixel image seems a little pricey. I'd be willing to pay for it but I just wanted to check and see if there was something better/cheaper before I started using them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JamesTaylor Posted July 12, 2007 Share Posted July 12, 2007 i actually saw a program on TV last night that had a section about satellites, the guy (wearing a white overcoat, gloves and hair net) said that the satellites only manage to get a resolution of 2.5 metres per pixel at best, anything in more detail than this is actually aerial photography. When asked about Google Earth his responce was that it is done with a clever transition during zooming! i know it doesn't really help you, just thought it was interesting! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deibel Posted July 12, 2007 Share Posted July 12, 2007 I'm not sure this will help either. Years back (pre-Google earth) i had luck finding areal imagery through a local municipal agency (a city mapping unit). I actually bought large photo prints from their negatives and then scanned them myself ... for instance, my wife works for a regional planning commision and they have a mapping dept. which the public can access... Good luck! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Claudio Branch Posted July 12, 2007 Share Posted July 12, 2007 I have used Google Earth Pro, when in a bind. You can create pretty decent hi-res images if you zoom in, but Google Earth Pro requires a license purchase and you still have to stitch them up in Photoshop. I have also used Landiscor ( http://www.landiscor.com/ ) which works very similiarly to Google Earth, but I believe that you have to purchase an aerial parcel of a large region (we bought mostly Texas counties). Quality is okay. I have also gone through NCTCOG ( http://www.nctcog.org/ ) via my GIS guy. This is where the best stuff has come from. Depending on the project's budget, client profile and time constraints, I utilize the best solution from these options. Good Luck! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ernest Burden III Posted July 12, 2007 Share Posted July 12, 2007 Where is the area you want the images of? 3D too? How big of an area? When? Sure, imagery below a resolution of a few meters could be aerial photos instead of satellite, so what? GIS mapping sometimes ortho-corrects objects, though usually not. But the whole image will be corrected back to the datum used for that sector. It depends of what you want to do, and how big an area you need. I have a lot of experience finding and working with GIS data. I recently bought a nice program to help merge it all together (USGS data comes in many, many formats, but they all can be layered with the right software (and that included 3D landforms)). New York State has some color photos at .25 meter resolution. Most GIS photomaps are at 1m to 3m. Google Earth often has the best maps available, though not always. Answer the questions above and I'll give you some further ideas. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Cassil Posted July 12, 2007 Author Share Posted July 12, 2007 I have used Google Earth Pro, when in a bind. You can create pretty decent hi-res images if you zoom in, but Google Earth Pro requires a license purchase and you still have to stitch them up in Photoshop. I have also used Landiscor ( http://www.landiscor.com/ ) which works very similiarly to Google Earth, but I believe that you have to purchase an aerial parcel of a large region (we bought mostly Texas counties). Quality is okay. I have also gone through NCTCOG ( http://www.nctcog.org/ ) via my GIS guy. This is where the best stuff has come from. Depending on the project's budget, client profile and time constraints, I utilize the best solution from these options. Good Luck! The problem I have with google earth is that the area I need (wasatch front in Utah) is a patchwork of images taken at different times of the year and/or day. Those other links look like they may be good resources for Texas. I can't find anything quite like that for Utah. Where is the area you want the images of? 3D too? How big of an area? When? Sure, imagery below a resolution of a few meters could be aerial photos instead of satellite, so what? GIS mapping sometimes ortho-corrects objects, though usually not. But the whole image will be corrected back to the datum used for that sector. It depends of what you want to do, and how big an area you need. I have a lot of experience finding and working with GIS data. I recently bought a nice program to help merge it all together (USGS data comes in many, many formats, but they all can be layered with the right software (and that included 3D landforms)). New York State has some color photos at .25 meter resolution. Most GIS photomaps are at 1m to 3m. Google Earth often has the best maps available, though not always. Answer the questions above and I'll give you some further ideas. Wasatch Front, Utah. Yes. Many square miles. ASAP. Actually I think I have it figured out for my needs. I've downloaded some .dem files and converted them to max files using polytrans (I love that program!) and stiched together a map from MS Live Local. The maps there seem to be much higher quality than those on google earth and are completely seamless. Here are a couple quick screen caps of what I have. For testing I've used the low res .dem files but plan on using higher res ones for the actual project. I would also take more time and stich a higher res texture. Either way this is kinda fun! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Claudio Branch Posted July 12, 2007 Share Posted July 12, 2007 Looks very promising. I also work with very large terrain scenes. What kind of project is this for? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Cassil Posted July 12, 2007 Author Share Posted July 12, 2007 I can't say specifically, but it's for a very large scale development. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ernest Burden III Posted July 12, 2007 Share Posted July 12, 2007 It looks like you're on the right track, already. I asked about locale because some states have better GIS resources than others. The usual site I get GIS from has been down, so it's been harder to find on various state/local sites. I'll look up the area you mention and see what I can find. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ikinman Posted July 13, 2007 Share Posted July 13, 2007 The site I use a lot for aerial imagery is GlobeXplorer: http://www.globexplorer.com/ They are pretty affordable, and you can patch together a series of images pretty quickly. They have good coverage and several levels of resolution. They are who I would recommend if you need it quickly. -Ian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rconce01 Posted July 20, 2007 Share Posted July 20, 2007 We use globe explorer too at our firm and also have a subscription to google eart pro for the high res downloads Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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