Fresh maps online from satellite. Space photography. Download QuikSCAT satellite images

To observe the Earth's surface for free and view satellite images online, you can use several applications. In Russia, two of them are most popular: Google Maps and Yandex Maps. Both services boast good quality high-resolution satellite images from most countries.

Yandex maps is an online application from Russian developers, so Russian cities are more accurately detailed in it. It has built-in functionality for viewing traffic load data (large settlements), demographic and geodata. Google maps have equally high-quality satellite images of the territory of the Russian Federation, but data on land plots and traffic are available only for the United States.

View a map of Planet Earth from satellite online

Below you can see the Google map built into the site. For more stable operation of the plugin, we recommend using the Google Chrome browser. If you see an error message, please update the specified plugin and then reload the page.

Watch Google Earth from satellite, in real time online:

Another advantage of Google Maps is the presence of a client application for working with satellite images. This means that the service can be accessed not only through a browser, but also through a pre-downloaded program. It has many more opportunities for viewing and studying satellite images and working with a three-dimensional virtual globe.

A 3D satellite map from Google (a downloadable application, not an online version) allows you to:

• use a quick search for the desired objects by name or coordinates;
• take screenshots and record high quality videos;
• work offline (preliminary synchronization via the Internet is required);
• use a flight simulator for more convenient movement between objects;
• save “favorite places” to quickly move between them;
• view not only the Earth's surface, but also images of other celestial bodies (Mars, Moon, etc.).

You can work with Google satellite maps through a client application or browser. A plugin is available on the official page of the program that allows you to use an interactive map on any web resource. It is enough to embed its address in the site’s program code. For display, you can select either the entire surface or a specific area (you will have to enter the coordinates). Control - using a computer mouse and keyboard (ctrl+mouse wheel for zooming, cursor for moving) or using the icons indicated on the map (“plus” - zoom in, “minus” - zoom out, move with the cursor).

The Google Earth service in real time allows you to work with several types of maps, each of which reflects certain data on satellite images. It’s convenient to switch between them “without losing progress” (the program remembers where you “were”). Available viewing modes:

• landscape map from satellite (geographical objects, features of the Earth's surface);
• physical map (detailed satellite images of the surface, cities, streets, their names);
• a schematic geographic map for a more accurate study of surface images.

The satellite image is automatically loaded at the point of approach, so a stable Internet connection is required for operation. To use Google Earth offline, you need to download the application for Windows or another operating system. Its operation also requires the Internet, but only for the first launch, after which the program synchronizes all the necessary data (satellite images of the surface, 3D models of buildings, names of geographical and other objects) after which it will be possible to work with the received data without direct access to the Internet.

They allow you to obtain spatial information about the earth's surface in the visible and infrared ranges of electromagnetic wavelengths. They are able to recognize passive reflected radiation from the earth's surface in the visible and near-infrared ranges. In such systems, radiation hits the corresponding sensors, which generate electrical signals depending on the intensity of the radiation.

In optical-electronic remote sensing systems, as a rule, sensors with constant line-by-line scanning are used. You can select linear, transverse and longitudinal scanning.

The total scanning angle across the route is called the viewing angle, and the corresponding value on the Earth's surface is shooting bandwidth.

Part of the data stream received from a satellite is called a scene. The schemes for cutting the stream into scenes, as well as their size for different satellites, differ.

Optical-electronic remote sensing systems carry out surveys in the optical range of electromagnetic waves.

Panchromatic the images occupy almost the entire visible range of the electromagnetic spectrum (0.45-0.90 microns), and are therefore black and white.

Multispectral(multispectral) imaging systems produce multiple separate images over broad spectral regions ranging from visible to infrared electromagnetic radiation. The greatest practical interest at the moment is multispectral data from new generation spacecraft, including RapidEye (5 spectral zones) and WorldView-2 (8 zones).

The new generation of high- and ultra-high-resolution satellites, as a rule, survey in panchromatic and multispectral modes.

Hyperspectral imaging systems form images simultaneously for narrow spectral zones in all parts of the spectral range. For hyperspectral imaging, it is not the number of spectral zones (channels) that is important, but the width of the zone (the smaller the better) and the sequence of measurements. Thus, a shooting system with 20 channels will be hyperspectral if it covers the range of 0.50-070 microns, while the width of each spectral zone is no more than 0.01 microns, and a shooting system with 20 separate channels covering the visible region of the spectrum , near, short-wave, mid- and long-wave infrared regions will be considered multispectral.

Spatial resolution- a value characterizing the size of the smallest objects distinguishable in the image. Factors affecting spatial resolution are the parameters of the optical-electronic or radar system, as well as the orbital altitude, that is, the distance from the satellite to the object being imaged. The best spatial resolution is achieved when shooting at nadir; as you deviate from nadir, the resolution deteriorates. Satellite images can have low (more than 10 m), medium (from 10 to 2.5 m), high (from 2.5 to 1 m), and ultra-high (less than 1 m) resolution.

Radiometric resolution determined by the sensitivity of the sensor to changes in the intensity of electromagnetic radiation. It is determined by the number of gradations of color values ​​corresponding to the transition from the brightness of absolutely “black” to absolutely “white”, and is expressed in the number of bits per pixel of the image. This means that in the case of a radiometric resolution of 6 bits/pixel, we have only 64 color gradations, 8 bits/pixel - 256 gradations, 11 bits/pixel - 2048 gradations.

Satellite map of Russia - high-resolution images taken from space by orbital stations. The image that the user sees consists of many individual images. The high quality of equipment used at orbital stations made it possible to achieve the highest quality of imaging. As a result, on the screens of mobile devices and PC monitors, we have access to high-precision, high-resolution images, the image of which is very accurate and clear.

The satellite map of Russia displays high-resolution images in real time. You can see almost all Russian cities on them. By zooming in and out of objects, moving the cursor over individual sections of the map, you will be able to view streets, buildings, individual structures and squares. The larger the city, the more detailed the satellite map section will be for it.

Satellite map online in real time 2016 - exploring the country together

High resolution satellite maps online 2016 - a set of high-precision images through which you can study settlements of different sizes at a specific point in time. The user, selecting the object and scale he needs, receives a snapshot of it at the same point in time. By selecting the appropriate parameters instead of the “satellite view” mode, you can display the image:

• landscape view;
• schematic representation of Russia and its individual cities;
• Satellite view - real image.

Online high-resolution satellite maps of 2015-2016 are the most user-friendly models of interactive map images from the website service. They will allow you to travel throughout the entire state, from anywhere in the world. Satellites make it possible to track current data on the location and condition of various muddy objects from different settlements in vast Russia.

Satellite maps are compiled from photographs of different ages taken from various satellite photo providers - such as NASA Reverb, USGS Earth Explorer and others. You can sometimes see dates on the pictures, but this is not a real-time video stream, but just a convenient collage.

The Google Maps satellite map is perhaps the most popular. Although if you need to look at Russia, then Yandex wins in terms of accuracy.

Google Maps

To switch to satellite mode, you need to go to the maps and click the “Satellite” square (now it’s in the lower left corner). You can try this on the map below - I added the map here using the embed code (only the square is without a caption, since the overall size is small):

• To focus the map to another location, click the left mouse button and drag the map in the desired direction.
• To zoom in or out on the map, rotate the mouse roller (on this preview you must also hold down the Ctrl key, but on a large map you do not need to).
• On a large map, you can find the desired place by entering its name or address in the input line.

Recency of pictures

Most of the pictures are between 1 and 3 years old. The date of the photo can be seen if you install the Google Earth application.

Yandex maps

For Russia, this map is better and more accurate, at least a diagram of what is located where. As for the satellite photographs themselves, they are about as old as Google’s – several years.

Here's what you need to click to turn on the satellite view:

Bing Map

The photographs here are no worse or better - a satellite is a satellite, but the description of the objects is poor, there are no newly built houses.

Google Maps is a leader among modern mapping services that provide satellite interactive maps online. At least a leader in the field of satellite imagery and in the number of various additional services and tools (Google Earth, Google Mars, various weather and transport services, one of the most powerful APIs).

In the field of schematic maps, at some point, this leadership “was lost” in favor of Open Street Maps - a unique mapping service in the spirit of Wikipedia, where every volunteer can contribute data to the site.

However, despite this, the popularity of Google Maps remains perhaps one of the highest of all other mapping services. Part of the reason is that Google Maps is where we can find the most detailed satellite photos for the largest regions of any country. Even in Russia such a large and successful company as Yandex cannot surpass the quality and coverage of satellite photographs, at least in its own country.

With Google Maps, anyone can view satellite photos of the Earth for free almost anywhere in the world.

Image quality

The highest resolution images are usually available for the largest cities in the world in America, Europe, Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Asia, Oceania. Currently, high-quality images are available for cities with a population of more than 1 million inhabitants. For smaller cities and other populated areas, satellite imagery is only available in limited resolution.

Possibilities

Google Maps or “Google Maps” was a real discovery for Internet users and indeed all PC users, giving an unheard of and previously unseen opportunity to look at their home, their village, cottage, lake or river where they vacationed in the summer - from a satellite. To see it from above, from a perspective from which it would be impossible to see it under any other circumstances. The discovery, the very idea of ​​giving people easy access to satellite photos, fits harmoniously into Google's overall vision of “easily providing everyone with access to any information on the planet.”

Google Maps allows you to see from a satellite simultaneously those things and objects that cannot be observed at the same time when observed from the ground. Satellite maps differ from ordinary maps in that on simple maps the colors and natural forms of natural objects are distorted by editorial processing for further publication. However, satellite photographs preserve all the naturalness of nature and the objects being photographed, natural colors, shapes of lakes, rivers, fields and forests.

Looking at the map, one can only guess what is there: a forest, a field or a swamp, while on satellite photography it is immediately clear: objects, usually round or oval in shape, with a unique swamp color, are swamps. The light green spots or areas in the photograph are fields, and the dark green ones are forests. With enough experience in orientation in Google Maps, you can even distinguish whether it is a coniferous forest or a mixed forest: coniferous has a browner tint. Also on the map you can distinguish specific broken lines piercing the forests and fields of the vast Russian expanses - these are railways. Only by looking from a satellite can one understand that railways have a much greater influence on the natural landscape surrounding them than roads. Also in Google Maps, it is possible to overlay maps with the names of regions, roads, settlements on a national scale and the names of streets, house numbers, metro stations on a city scale on a satellite image of an area or city.

Map mode and satellite view mode

In addition to satellite images, it is possible to switch to the “map” mode, in which it is possible to view any territory on the surface of the Earth and study in detail the layout and location of houses of any more or less large city. In the "map" mode it is especially convenient to plan your movements around the city if you have already seen enough satellite views of your city.

The search function by house number will easily point you to the desired house, giving you the opportunity to “look around” the area around this house and how you can drive up/approach it. To search for the required object, just type in Russian in the search bar a query like: “City, street, house number” and the site will display to you the location of the object you are looking for with a special marker.

How to use Google Maps

To begin, open some place.

To move around the map, left-click on the map and drag it in any order. To return to the original position, press the centering button located between the four direction buttons.

To enlarge the map, click on the button "+" or roll the mouse roller when the cursor is over the map. You can also enlarge the map double click mouse in the location you are interested in.

To switch between satellite, mixed (hybrid) and map views, use the corresponding buttons in the upper right corner of the map: Map / Satellite / Hybrid.