As was expected from their purchase of Keyhole, Google Maps now provides satellite images of locations.
You can see where I work in the centre-bottom of this image
(For some reason Google Maps thinks all Ottawa streetnames are in French. You can switch between map and satellite using links in the upper right.)
The data is actually better than Keyhole, which doesn't have high-res coverage of most Canadian cities. Keyhole uses some crummy low-res USGS data for Ottawa. I decided not to buy it.
There is a free satellite data tool from NASA called World Wind that I like a lot. It's Windows-only though. You can zoom in and fly around all over the globe, and also overlay lots of scientific information. It only has high-res data for the US though. For Ottawa I can make out Parliament Hill, but I can't see individual buildings in detail like the new Google Maps data. The World Wind people have worked very hard to support a community of users and developers. They have a wiki, a blog, fora and more. (Wiki also noted by Library Stuff.)
Microsoft's TerraServer-USA also provides high-res sat images, but as the name indicates, it covers the USA only.
Also check out MultiMap, which has UK data particularly. They provide links to buy aerial photos which are done by GetMapping.
Space Imaging would also be happy to sell you satellite images. Their image gallery is cool.
Spot Image is another such image provider, also with a gallery.
You might like this: http://www.shreddies.org/gmaps/
Posted by: olly | April 07, 2005 at 10:09 AM