Satellite photo...

It was a historic day when the TIROS-1 satellite took the first satellite photos of the earth from space on 1st April 1960. The United States of America launched the Landsat program in 1972, in order to acquire satellites photos of the earth. The 7th satellite of the project, Landsat 7, was set into orbit in 1999. These satellite photos, released by NASA (National Aeronautical and Space Administration), are published by the Earth Observatory, and are free for people to access anytime. Besides America, other nations also have their own satellite imaging programs. Earlier, satellite photos had a limited resolution and thus were hazy and of poor quality. Moreover, they were mostly black and white infrared images. With the advances in technology, we now have high-quality satellite photos that offer up to 100 meters of resolution, and come in a wide variety of colors. These satellite photos are stored in large databases by companies and organizations, and you can access them from the comfort of your home.

Satellite photo house: Now that you have easy access to a large number of aerial satellite photo databases through the Internet, you can log onto a satellite imaging web site and search for the satellite photo of your house. The interactive software available today, allows you to view satellite photos of any house anywhere in the world. You can also locate any possible address using satellite images.

Free satellite photo: The best thing about aerial satellite photos is that they are free and available in plenty. Popular satellite photo sites like Google, Flashearth, Microsoft, Terraserver and Globexplorer offer free and real time satellite photos of any part of the earth. You can take a tour of the Pyramids of Giza in Egypt or the famous Eiffel Tower in Paris. In fact, you can visit any exotic landmark, or places you have always wanted to know about, through the power of the Internet. A virtual round the globe trip is available to you at the click of a mouse button.

Earth Satellite photo: Satellites have been positioned at several places above the earth’s surface and at different heights, to be able to capture real time satellite photos of the earth at different times. This allows meteorologists to predict weather changes and cultivators to observe the area under agriculture. Metal deposits under the earth, roads, houses and industries can all be located on satellite photos. Agriculture, geology, forestry, regional planning, intelligence and several other fields depend heavily on satellite photos of the earth for observing trends and making decisions.

Satellite photo maps: Satellite photo maps are the most accurate and detailed among all physical maps. They provide real features and some even show elevations of physical features like hills and mountains. Photographic Interpreters or PIs are the experts who analyze these satellite photos. The resolution of the satellite photo maps depends on the height at which the photos are taken, as well as the type of instrument used. The higher the resolution, the clearer the picture. With software like DigitalGlobe, you can view objects on the ground, which are as small as 60 cm in size.

Satellite photo maps are extremely useful in GIS (Geographical Information System) applications. The only problem could be that due to the large amount of data, processing could take a lot of time, because of which you cannot have instant access to live satellite photos of the earth. The greatest concern is of privacy and security, as these satellite photos can be used by terrorist organizations to locate strategic defense areas. Masking sensitive areas with a layer has controlled this, so that satellite photos of that area are not available on the Internet. Google Maps has also addressed this issue as a concern.