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Cyclone Pam and DigitalGlobe FirstLook coverage

This last weekend Tropical Cyclone Pam struck the Islands of Vanuatu in the South Pacific causing widespread devastation.

We were asked by a GEB reader whether the satellite imaging companies would be collecting and publishing satellite imagery of Vanuatu. DigitalGlobe has a subscription service called ‘First Look’ that provides access to timely satellite imagery for disaster zones. It is targeted at crisis response organizations. It does not provide the imagery directly to the public. DigitalGlobe does, however, have a publicly available map showing what imagery is made available via the First Look service and it appears that satellites World View 1 and World View 2 have captured a number of images over the last few days of the island of Efate where the capital of Vanuatu lies.

In addition, the New Zealand Herald has published sections of a few of the images showing comparisons of before and after imagery.

DigitalGlobe First Look coverage
DigitalGlobe’s First Look coverage map.

Also on DigitalGlobe’s map you can see the locations of other recent events that you may not have heard of, such as the eruption Costa Rica’s Turrialba Volcano, the eruption of Chile’s Villarica volcano or flooding in Lobito, Angola.

We hope that DigitalGlobe makes the imagery of these locations available to the public at some point in the future, or even better, that they get into Google Earth.

DigitalGlobe now selling 30cm imagery

In August last year DigitalGlobe launched their World View-3 satellite. A few weeks later we showed you some of the first imagery they released.

Last week DigitalGlobe announced that they are now selling the new 30cm imagery to customers. Until recently it was actually illegal for US companies to sell satellite imagery at this resolution. As we have noted in the past, aerial imagery is typically of similar or better resolution and is not subject to that restriction, but for global coverage and bulk image capturing satellites work out much more cost effective.

DigitalGlobe has available for download six sample images. For your convenience we have put them into Google Earth image overlays which you can view with this KML file. For best results turn off the ‘3D Buildings’ layer.

A few notes on the sample images:

  • The image from Pudong, Shanghai, China is actually already in Google Earth and was captured on December 18, 2014.

  • The default imagery for Auckland, New Zealand is slightly better quality than the DigitalGlobe image, but that is because it is aerial imagery that was captured in 2012 as part of the Auckland 3D imagery.

  • The image from Kalgoorlie Mine, Australia, is of noticeably better quality than the default imagery in Google Earth which is from 2013.

  • The default imagery in Google Earth for Sao Paulo, Brazil is actually newer than the sample image although not quite as good quality as the sample.

Sao Paulo, Brazil
Left: 30cm sample image dated September 10, 2014. Right: Default Google Earth image from October 17, 2014.

Another interesting story from DigitalGlobe is that on January 27, 2015 they retired their imaging satellite QuickBird after 13 years in orbit. For the full story and to see QuickBird’s last image see the DigitalGlobe blog article.

Digital Globe top image of 2014

Over the last few years Digital Globe, one of Google Earth’s main sources of satellite imagery, has been holding a contest for the best satellite image of the year. The winning image for 2012 was of the Burning Man Festival, and the 2013 winner was of Mount Vesuvius.

This year, the wining image is from the Rainbow Range in British Columbia, Canada.To read more about it and see the other top main contenders, see Digital Globe’s blog post.

The image itself is not in Google Earth but you can see it in Google Earth using this image overlay.

Best satellite image of the year, 2014
Best satellite image of the year, 2014. Find the high resolution image here.

The Koslanda landslide in Google Earth

We have looked at a number of landslides in the past, including the Bingham Canyon mine landslide, a landslide near Oso, Washington and a whole set of landslides in Brazil.

On 29th October 2014, there was a landslide in the district of Badulla, Sri Lanka, which hit the village of Koslanda. A site called Groundviews has managed to obtain satellite imagery from Digital Globe showing the landslide and they also include a KML so that you can view it in Google Earth. Find the story and KML here.

Koslanda landslide
The Koslanda landslide – imagery from Digital Globe

Digital Globe releases first images from WorldView-3

We told you a couple of weeks ago about the launch of DigitalGlobe’s latest satellite, WorldView-3.

On Tuesday, August 18, less than two weeks after its launch, they released the first images from the satellite. Thanks to GEB reader Cesaley Sparks for alerting us to it. The satellite is capable of producing imagery at a resolution of 30 cm per pixel, but because of regulatory restrictions, they have to resample it to 40 cm before releasing it.

Here is a slideshow they created showing what you can see with 40cm resolution.

WorldView-3 40 cm Resolution Examples Madrid, Spain from DigitalGlobe

Digital Globe has also provided a number of images taken around the airport in Madrid, Spain. We have created image overlays in Google Earth which you can download below:
Image 1 (20Mb 4000 x 5000 pixels)
Image 2 (3.8Mb 2000 x 2000 pixels)
Image 3 (5.2Mb 2000 x 2000 pixels)
Image 4 (3.3Mb 2000 x 2000 pixels)
Image 5 (4.5Mb 2000 x 2000 pixels)
Image 6 (4.2Mb 2000 x 2000 pixels)
Image 7 (4.6Mb 2000 x 2000 pixels)
Image 8 (5.3Mb 2000 x 2000 pixels)
Image 9 (5.4Mb 2000 x 2000 pixels)

To my eyes, the image quality looks comparable to what is already in Google Earth at that location, which I believe is aerial imagery captured from aircraft. Although it will always be possible to get higher quality imagery from aircraft than from satellites, the big advantage of satellites is the global coverage and the regularity with which they can capture imagery. Despite the enormous cost of building and launching satellites, it is still considerably cheaper than a global fleet of aircraft constantly taking photos. The data sheet for WorldView-3 states that it is capable of capturing 680,000 km² per day. That seems a lot until you look up the surface area of the Earth and it comes to 510,072,000 km².

Another very interesting fact was that DigitalGlobe managed to capture images of WorldView-3’s launch using another of their satellites, WorldView-1. See the gif animation they made with the images here..