# Satellite Imagery Sources and Access

> Explore open and commercial satellite imagery platforms for geolocation, change detection, and terrain analysis in OSINT investigations.

- **URL:** https://hackindex.io/platforms/osint/geolocation-and-imagery-intelligence/satellite-and-aerial-imagery/satellite-imagery-sources
- **Path:** OSINT > Geolocation & Imagery Intelligence > Satellite and Aerial Imagery
- **Up:** [Satellite and Aerial Imagery](https://hackindex.io/platforms/osint/geolocation-and-imagery-intelligence/satellite-and-aerial-imagery.md)
- **Published:** 2026-08-10
- **Updated:** 2026-08-10

## Overview

Overhead imagery splits into free government and open programmes, which are unlimited but capped in resolution or refresh rate, and commercial providers, which offer sub-metre resolution and tasking for a fee. Match the source to the question: footprint confirmation needs resolution, activity monitoring needs frequent revisits.

## Free High-Resolution Base Layers

For confirming a footprint, the best free imagery is the composite base layer in mapping platforms:

- Google Earth and Google Earth Pro, the highest-resolution free imagery for most populated areas, with a historical timeline.
- Esri World Imagery, sub-metre in many regions, with a companion Wayback archive of past versions.
- Bing Maps aerial and Yandex Maps satellite, which sometimes hold a clearer or differently dated frame than Google for the same spot.

## Free Medium-Resolution, Frequent-Revisit Programmes

When recency matters more than resolution, the Copernicus and Landsat programmes deliver fresh imagery on a fixed cadence, free and openly licensed:

- Sentinel-2 optical at 10 m, revisiting every few days. Access through the Copernicus Data Space Ecosystem and its EO Browser.
- Sentinel-1 radar, which sees through cloud and at night.
- Landsat 8 and 9 at 15 to 30 m through USGS EarthExplorer.
- NASA Worldview for near-real-time daily global coverage at coarse resolution.

Query the Copernicus catalogue programmatically to find scenes covering a point within a date window. The STAC API returns matching Sentinel-2 products:

```bash
curl -s "https://catalogue.dataspace.copernicus.eu/stac/search" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"collections":["SENTINEL-2"],"datetime":"2025-06-01T00:00:00Z/2025-08-31T23:59:59Z","intersects":{"type":"Point","coordinates":[$LON,$LAT]},"limit":5}' | jq '.features[].id'
```

## Commercial Providers

When free coverage is too coarse or too old, commercial imagery offers 30 to 50 cm resolution and, at a price, tasking of a fresh capture:

- Maxar, the highest publicly available optical resolution, with an open data programme releasing imagery over major disaster events.
- Planet Labs, whose PlanetScope constellation images the entire landmass daily at around 3 m, with SkySat tasking at 50 cm.
- Airbus, offering Pleiades and SPOT products.

## Choosing Resolution Against the Question

Resolution decides what a pixel can answer. At 10 m Sentinel-2 shows the presence and outline of buildings and large vehicles. At sub-metre commercial resolution individual cars, their type, and ground activity become distinguishable. Do not pay for resolution the question does not need, and do not expect a 10 m pixel to answer a question that requires counting vehicles.

## References

- [Copernicus Data Space Ecosystem](https://dataspace.copernicus.eu/) - Free access to Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 imagery, including EO Browser.
- [USGS EarthExplorer](https://earthexplorer.usgs.gov/) - Free Landsat and other USGS-held satellite and aerial imagery.
- [Planet](https://www.planet.com/) - Commercial daily PlanetScope and high-resolution SkySat tasking.