Every user has at least once wondered how to find their home using aerial photographs.
The surprising thing is that access to this information via the Internet is now completely free.
Thanks to the launch of commercial Earth observations, we now have access to online tools that make it easy to see your home from space.
In our modern space age, there are more than 8,000 satellites that constantly orbit the Earth.
The vast majority of them receive data and transmit encoded.
Many of them are equipped with high power cameras. Just look at the sky and you are sure to see the satellite's trail after the satellite passes overhead.
But how can you access this satellite data and aerial imagery of your home?
Satellite images of the entire Earth
If you just want to look at satellite images of the entire planet, you have a few simple solutions.
You can go to the NASA weather forecasters website. Every three hours, images taken by NOAA's Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite appear on the site.
This is a release of images of an entire hemisphere of planet Earth.
From these pictures you can see the main changes weather conditions, affecting different hemispheres of the Earth.
The images are so precise that you can see a specific place on Earth as close as possible.
These photographs are striking in their extreme realism. The weather changes that you see in these pictures are happening on the planet right now.
If you don't want to watch videos, but just want to enjoy the extraordinary hemispheres of the Earth, these are the pictures you need.
Also on the Internet you can find amazing new satellite images of the Earth, which come from the Meteosat 3rd generation spacecraft of the European Space Agency.
Approximation. Looking at satellite images of houses
If these weather satellite photos aren't enough for you, let's see how to zoom in enough to see houses from space.
To do this, we need the best tool on the market today, in my opinion, . All you need is a web browser and an internet connection.
When first launched, the user receives a satellite view that is located over North America.
You can then zoom in or pan the camera across the surface to see any location on Earth.
You can also enter the exact address you want to see.
Once you do this, you will receive free access to satellite images of the house whose address you provided. You can save the image or print it.
Another interesting tool is Google Earth. It can be accessed via this link: http://earth.google.com.
The main difference Google Maps and Google Earth is that you have to download and install the corresponding application on your local computer (they have a version for PC, Mac, Linux and even iPhone).
Once you have downloaded and installed, you can see a 3D view of the Earth that you can zoom in and out.
You can also rotate the 3-dimensional model of our planet. You can enter your address and view your home from above.
Google Earth's print function works much better than Google Maps because it uses a printer directly to print rather than through a web browser.
There are those among modern users who prefer not to use the products of this search engine leader, suspecting that the company's technical engineers are spying on them.
Microsoft's service was previously called MSN Maps, but now the developers have changed the name to Bing Maps, completely updating the interface and functionality.
Yahoo's service is called Yahoo Maps, and it is very similar to Google Maps.
There is a big difference between these two services.
You can find a cool app on the Internet that allows you to see both of these apps side by side.
Comparing them, you can understand that the latter are worked out in more detail.
And most cities are best viewed through this application.
Where do all these photos come from?
Google Maps and other popular mapping services are really just clients.
They, just like users, use satellite communication services to actually download these photos from space.
There are several major service providers in the market, including Geoeye.
Geoeye's main competitors are Digitalglobe and Spot Image.
Each company has a fleet of satellites that they use to observe the Earth.
Their technical capabilities make it possible to photograph tiny objects on Earth.
The smallest object that has been recorded so far is about 45 cm (18 inches).
In other words, a 45cm object will appear as one pixel in the photograph.
Private satellites that monitor our planet around the clock:
- GeoEye – 5 satellites: IKONOS, OrbView-2, OrbView-3, GeoEye-1, GeoEye-2 (in 2013).
- DigitalGlobe – 4 satellites: Early Bird 1, Quickbird, WorldView-1, Worldview-2
- Spot Image – 2 satellites: Spot 4, Spot 5
Each of these services allows customers to purchase satellite imagery directly, but the prices are extremely high: hundreds or even thousands of dollars for specific satellite imagery.
It is usually not possible to purchase photographs directly from the company that owns the satellite.
Most often, in such cases, the services of international intermediaries are used.
Average users are better off sticking to free sources.
When you look at these amazing images from space, you may be surprised at the accuracy and detail. In fact, this is far from the most current data.
At the moment, photographs from two years ago can be found in the public domain.
More current data is purchased by intelligence agencies and intelligence organizations and is never made publicly available.
But, if you have a burning thirst for up-to-date information, you should turn to other sources that will give you a live view of the Earth from space.
For example, you can access a live broadcast from the International space station NASA.
About 40% of the time, if you go to their website, you will be able to see a video of Earth from the space station.
Another service called Urthecast launched a broadcast from the camera high resolution from the International Space Station in 2013 to broadcast video of Earth from space.
Navigation
Google Maps is not just a popular program used by the company, but it is also one of the most popular maps used for hybrid web applications.
This makes Google Maps a very popular and versatile tool that is used in various ways.
It is used in localization applications and weather forecasting services.
Learning to use the application is easy. This way you can navigate through various map-based hybrid web apps.
Although some of these hybrids change some of the default settings.
But knowing Google Maps will allow you to quickly adapt to small changes in the software's display.
Tip: While reading the instructions for using the application, try moving the cards to a separate browser window. You can practice while reading useful tips.
Drag and Drop controls
The easiest way to navigate is using the drag and drop technique.
To do this, you need to move the mouse cursor to the required areas of the map while holding down the left mouse button.
Simply move the clamped area in the direction you want it to rotate.
For example, if you want the map to move south, hold down the mouse button and move the mouse up.
The image will shift to the north, thus revealing all the cards in the south.
You can also center the map. You can click on the area that interests you and drag it to the center.
Or, you can double-click the area. This will not only center the area you need, but will also bring the image one notch closer.
To zoom in and out with your mouse, you can use the mouse wheel, which is located between the two buttons.
By moving the wheel you change the scale. If you don't have a mouse wheel, you can zoom in and out of the map using the navigation icons on the left side of Google Maps.
Understanding Google Map Menu
At the top of the Google map there are several buttons that change modes.
To understand how these buttons work, we'll take a quick look at each of them.
Map. This button changes the appearance of the cards to the original setting. This view is similar to a regular map.
It has a gray background. Small roads will be painted white, major roads yellow, and major highways and highways orange.
Satellite. This button draws Google Maps with a satellite overlay that allows you to see the area from above.
In this mode, you can zoom in until you can see individual houses.
Terrain. This button highlights differences in terrain.
It can be used to identify flat or rocky terrain.
It can also give an interesting view when zooming in mountainous areas.
These buttons are responsible for making the cards interact with the user:
Traffic jams. This button is very convenient for those who are often late due to slow moving traffic.
This view is designed to zoom to street level so you can see where the traffic is and what it is.
Roads on which traffic moves freely are marked in green, while roads on which traffic is difficult will be highlighted in red.
Street view. This is very interesting and even a fun way use maps, this is the most difficult mode.
This view shows the street as if you were standing in the center.
This is achieved by zooming in at street level and then dragging. The user feels like small man at the center of what is happening.
Please note that this display option will only work on streets that are highlighted in blue.
Menu navigation
You can also use the navigation menu on the left to manipulate the map. This provides an alternative to using drag-and-drop menus.
At the top of this menu there are four arrows, one in each direction.
Clicking on the arrow moves the map in that direction. Clicking the button between these arrows will center by default.
Below these arrows are a plus sign and a minus sign.
These buttons allow you to zoom in and out. You can zoom in by clicking on the plus sign and zoom out by clicking on the minus sign.
You can also click on part of the train track to increase the level.
Google Maps Keyboard Shortcuts
Google Maps can also be navigated using a keyboard shortcut.
To move north, use the up arrow key.
To move south, use the down arrow key.
To move west, use the left arrow key.
To move east, use the right arrow key.
To increase, use the plus key. To zoom out, use the minus key.
Navigating on maps is a simple and very exciting experience. It is thanks to him that the user can look at our earth with completely new eyes.
How to Use Google Maps Offline on Android
Google Map is one of the most popular services today. It provides users with the opportunity to observe our planet (and not only) from a satellite online in high quality and in real time (sights of the planet in). At some point, the primacy of the schematic map view was captured by the Open Street Maps application. Where everyone in the know can edit a map in Wikipedia style, but this does not change anything and today Google Maps is the most popular online map service. The popularity of cards from this company ranks first long years because of good quality satellite images in any corner of the planet, even Yandex could not provide such quality in its homeland.
Google Maps online
Quality of Google Maps satellite images in 2020
Google continues to improve its brainchild in the form of visualization of our planet, improving the quality and detail of surfaces. More recently, the company has improved its services using the new Landsat 8 satellite, which can photograph the surface of planet Earth with a resolution of 15/30/100 meters per elemental point. The database of satellite images in real time was previously updated only in 2013. At that time, the application used images taken by the Landsat 7 satellite, which was also known for introducing some bugs and glitches into the maps. To compare the quality of images taken by different satellites, pay attention to the screenshot below.
Images taken by different satellites
In the examples given on the screen you can see that the image of the new satellite shows not only improved detail of earthly objects, but also more natural colors. Representatives of Google announced that about 700 trillion pixels of graphic data were spent on assembling a mosaic of the earth's surface of a new generation. Almost 43 thousand powerful computing machines in the Google cloud worked for a week on gluing together pictures.
How to use Google Maps online
Anywhere in the world you can use Google Maps online in high quality using a tablet, mobile phone or computer. Just follow the link https://google.com/maps/ or use the embedded map below and you can find the country, city and even the road to the museum by indicating required parameters search. And for mobile devices you can download a special application that is more convenient to use.
To find the way to a laundromat or a cafe that you often visit, simply enter the addresses in the program line and you will no longer need to enter this data every time. At the same time, you can not only view the route to the establishment, but also get acquainted with information that relates to this establishment, for example, opening hours, contact details, etc.
Let's try using Google's satellite map 2020 as an example.
- Go to the website or open the app on your mobile device.
- All you have to do is point or touch on the touch screen and you can view the details of that area.
- In order to find out the distance between cities, right-click on one of them and select “Measure distance” from the drop-down menu. Now the second point can be specified with the left mouse button. If necessary, you can drag the point with the mouse to another location, and the distance information will be updated.
- To select the “Relief”, “Bike Paths”, “Traffic” mode - select the menu sign (three stripes) and press the desired option. If you are using Apple devices, click the diamond icon with the layer and also click on the desired option.
- To take advantage high quality 3D images, click on the quadrilateral in the lower left corner. It will say "Satellite", if you need to return to map mode, press it again.
- To select Street View mode, drag the yellow man to the desired area of the map or simply enter the exact location in the query bar, preferably including your home address.
- Google Maps high resolution allows you to view streets in historical mode, i.e. how they have changed over time. To do this, throw the little man to the desired place on the map. Select the clock icon and move the time slider to select the desired date.
Amazing Facts About Google Maps
Features and benefits of online maps in real time
From the first days, Google Maps became a revelation for all users. They made it possible to look at cards in a new way, to pay new attention to this tool in general. Everyone who accessed the Internet back in 2005 sought to immediately take advantage of online map mi and see your city or country from a satellite.
It seems unthinkable, but today it is possible to view other planets of the solar system in the Google Maps application!
Planets in Google Maps
To do this, go to the web version of the program and zoom out the Earth image with the mouse wheel to the maximum. Other planets will appear in the block on the left that you can select to view. There are all the planets of the solar system and several additional satellites. For example, Callisto is a satellite of Jupiter. True, the photographs do not allow us to look at other planets as closely and in detail as happens with the Earth.
Google Maps from satellite in 2019 will allow you to view the surface of the earth and settlements in excellent quality, which cannot be done using a regular card. When drawing up paper and other versions of maps, natural colors, clear contours of the banks of rivers, lakes, colors of areas of the earth and other color schemes are omitted, which is why we have poor orientation. Viewing the desert area on regular map one can only guess what kind of vegetation or relief there is. By accessing Google Maps in real time, you can even see the color and shape of the fence at any address on another continent.
5 strange places that can be seen on Google Maps
On the page there is an interactive satellite map of the Seekers. More details at. Below are satellite images and real-time Google Maps search, photos of the village and Nenets Autonomous Okrug in Russia, coordinates
Satellite map of Seekers - Russia
We observe on the satellite map of Iskateley exactly how the buildings are located on Pomorskaya and Ugolnaya streets. Viewing a map of the area, routes and highways, squares and banks, stations and terminals, searching for an address.
The satellite map of the Iskateley village presented here online contains images of buildings and photos of houses from space. You can find out where the streets are. Geologists and Installers. Using the Google Maps search service, you will find the desired address in the village and its view from space. We recommend changing the scale of the diagram +/- and moving the center of the image in the desired direction.
Squares and shops, roads and borders, buildings and houses, views of Gubkin and Ardalin streets. The page contains detailed information and photos of all local objects in order to show the required house in real time on the map of the village and the Nenets Autonomous Okrug in Russia. Show
Detailed satellite map of Seekers (hybrid) and area provided Google service Maps.
Coordinates - 67.6778,53.1248
The evolution of maps, navigation and orientation is happening in our time. Now! The first travelers and pioneers used paper cards, maps drawn on stones, wooden planks, leather and other objects. Nowadays, few people imagine themselves without electronic navigation, satellite maps, cellular... New technologies are coming.
Let's try to understand some of the opportunities that technology in the field of surveillance and navigation currently provides us. Let's look into history.
Creation of the first artificial Earth satellites
The idea of using satellites as relays arose long before they were launched into Earth orbit. first satellite.
For the first time, engineers from Nazi Germany tried to bring aircraft into the upper atmosphere by creating a guided missile “weapon of retaliation.”
The Nazis did not achieve their goals, but they attracted the attention of many specialists to the development of missile weapons. People began to think about the possibilities of using guided missiles for scientific purposes.
One of the British army officers, science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke, published an article in the magazine “Wireless World” in 1945, where he proposed the principle of satellite communications and the possibility of turning such missiles into “unearthly repeaters.”
On June 26, 1954, Korolev presented a memo to the Minister of Defense Industry Dmitry Ustinov: “ About the artificial satellite of the Earth».
Work has begun on the AES project.
October 4, 1957 at 10:28 p.m. Moscow time, Sputnik 1 was launched into orbit. It began sending its first signals from space immediately after separating from the last stage of the rocket. It was a metal ball half a meter in diameter with a simple radio transmitter.
In 1967, the Russian satellite TV system “ORBITA” began operating. It allowed the transmission of one Central Television program through an artificial Earth satellite: Channel One.
Real-time satellite maps
The discovery of space began with interactive maps— photographs of the Earth received from a satellite. This significant event occurred on August 17, 1959, thanks to the American artificial satellite Explorer 6. The era of satellite photography has begun.
Let's focus on services that have open access.
If someone is content with satellite maps in real time, then there were those for whom this seemed not enough. Employees of the interactive systems studio from the Georgia Institute of Technology went further and proposed real-time planet observation project in 3D view.
Depending on the time of day, you can see either a very high-quality broadcast or a dark screen. If the second option, then you just need to try again later, since everything depends on the location of the satellite at the moment.
Planet Earth in real time online
Also, services such as Google Maps have appeared, which remain the most accessible resource for the average person.
(To move around the map, zoom in, out of the map, change the image angle, use the navigation in the form of arrows and + and – signs at the top of the map. Also try to control the map by holding the right mouse button)
You can view world maps and satellite photos, determine the coordinates of any point on the Planet, measure distances between objects, calculate the area and plot a route using new satellite maps.
(The map can be enlarged or reduced)
If Google Maps provides static information, that is, satellite images are not shown in real time, then there are devices that provide this opportunity.
For example, using the Baikal satellite receiver you can receive Real-time photos and satellite maps.
The Baikal satellite weather receiver is designed to receive images of the earth's surface from weather satellites located in low-earth and geostationary orbits, operating in the frequency range 137-138 MHz with frequency modulation of the signal in APT (NOAA15, NOAA17, NOAA18, NOAA19) and WEFAX (METEOSAT7, GOES). The receiver can be installed both on stationary and mobile objects, for example on a boat, yacht, sea or river vessel, icebreaker or car. Image reception is possible even while moving.
Services, services, discoveries...
By using Google Maps and other platforms, enthusiasts are coming up with more and more new services:
Several startups are developing services similar to projects from Google. One of them is the American company SkyBox, which launches satellites into space. The goal is to make real-time Earth observation more accessible. The company demonstrated its vision for the future project with a video showing China's Capital International Airport, filmed by the Skybox satellite.
Currently there is one satellite in orbit. A total of 24 satellites are planned to be launched to cover the entire planet. The satellite weighs only 120 kilograms and its size is 60*60*90 centimeters. Shooting detail is up to 90 centimeters per pixel.
To develop this system, navigation systems, satellite repeaters, web cameras, and services such as Google Earth and Microsoft Virtual Earth will be used.
Navigation charts can be needed in a variety of situations. Either you are lost in the forest, or you are looking for the necessary street in the city. A service that can help you deal with this is Google Maps. It consists of a couple of applications. Namely: from the Google Maps website and Google Transit (routing program). Thanks to the fact that Google transmits data directly from the satellite, with the help of these maps you can find out a detailed route map, house numbers, street names, as well as how you can walk or drive (by car, bus, bicycle) to your destination.
This service is a large reference book covering many areas of life: from traveling to planning a walk or going on vacation.
Appearance
The map can be displayed for users in two versions:- traditionally ( topographic map, analogue of Mercator);
- satellite images (not in online mode, but made some time ago).
A sister project to Google Maps, Google Planet (corresponds to a globe), complements the service of images of the Earth's poles.
Peculiarities
Not all countries disclose information about the location of their facilities. Therefore, places on the map where there are classified areas shaded. These include, for example, the White House, the Capitol.Different areas of land have different resolutions on the map. The lower the population density of an area, the less details are known about it. Some places on the map are hidden under clouds. Although not all objects were taken from the satellite. The images of some of them were obtained thanks to aerial photography from a height of 300 meters or more. In such places, the detail of the terrain reaches high values.
Service interface
Google Maps is very easy to use. This app was made for people and that's how it works. On the left side there is a button for switching the appearance of cards ( topographical or satellite view). And on the right side of the screen the user can find zoom buttons ( increase and decrease).The system allows its users to enter the address or name of an object and obtain information about its location, address, coordinates, appearance. For some areas, a “what’s there” recognition service is available, and Google Maps will show which object (gas station, museum, store, theater) is located there.
Google online maps javascript service is widely used. New areas of the map appear on the page as the user moves it around the screen. If the address of a specific object has been entered, the page is reloaded and the location of the desired place is displayed on the map with a dynamic red marker icon.
So that the map can be hosted by owners of other sites, Google has announced a free service: API Maps(Application Programming Interface) in 2005. This map can be added to any area of the site. There are currently more than 350 thousand of them around the world.
About Google Maps
As of 2011, Google announced that it provides its mapping service to more than 150 million customers. This makes the service one of the largest and most ambitious Internet navigation services.Interactive Google Maps is a free service, courtesy of Google Corporation, which does not contain advertising, but only provides high-quality and verified information about the location and purpose of objects around the world.
