OSINT At Home #9 - Top 4 Free Satellite Imagery Sources
This tutorial is part 9 of the OSINT At Home series. It covers a common question that I get asked a lot, which is where I am getting my satellite imagery from. So I’ve made this tutorial on my four favourite satellite imagery sources and tools - and they’re all free.
This tutorial may suit you if you are keen to learn a little bit more about how and where to find satellite imagery for free. We all know commercial imagery can be expensive, so getting it for free is quite helpful.
If you are keen on learning more about geospatial intelligence (GEOINT), GIS, open source intelligence (OSINT), verification, geolocation or being able to visualise findings in research, journalism or movie making with satellite imagery, then you might find this tutorial helpful.
For those that don’t want to watch the whole video, below I have broken this tutorial down into chapters:
00:53 - Google Earth Pro (www.google.co.uk/earth/downlo...)
04:18 - Sentinel Hub (apps.sentinel-hub.com/sentine...)
08:11 - Zoom Earth (zoom.earth/) NOTE: Zoom Earth has updated imagery availability, use satellites.pro/ for clear hi-res satellite imagery instead.
11:08 - World Imagery Wayback (livingatlas.arcgis.com/wayback)
The OSINT At Home series is useful for those looking to find digital breadcrumbs and pick up some methods of open source intelligence (OSINT), digital investigations and good old plain research. No matter who you are, or where you are in the world, you can follow these tutorials from home with publicly available information to answer questions such as who, what, where and when.
FREE SATELLITE IMAGERY SOURCES
Google Earth Pro: www.google.co.uk/earth/downlo...
Sentinel Hub Playground: apps.sentinel-hub.com/sentine...
Zoom Earth: zoom.earth/ NOTE: Zoom Earth has updated imagery availability, use satellites.pro/ for clear hi-res satellite imagery instead.
World Imagery Wayback: livingatlas.arcgis.com/wayback
MORE RESOURCES
How to geolocate an image or find a location using satellite imagery: • OSINT At Home #4 - Ide...
How to create a satellite image timelapse: • OSINT At Home #7 - How...
How to view past satellite imagery on Google Earth: • OSINT At Home #6 - Fin...
How to add KML/KMZ files to Google Earth and where to find them: benjaminstrick.com/geospatial...
15 Free Satellite Imagery Data Sources:
gisgeography.com/free-satelli...
Free Satellite Imagery Sources: eos.com/blog/free-satellite-i...
SUPPORT ME:
Please do consider supporting this content so I can create more and keep it free, independent and accessible to everyone in the world: ko-fi.com/bendobrown
MY SETUP:
Apple Macbook Pro 16-inch: amzn.to/3rTWhW3
Logitech MX Anywhere 2 mouse: amzn.to/3phQp7v
Blue Yeti USB microphone: amzn.to/3ajixmb
CREDITS FOR THIS TUTORIAL
Imagery: Google Earth/Landsat Copernicus
Satellite imagery: Copernicus Sentinel & Landsat data source acquired through the Sentinel Hub Sentinel Playground: apps.sentinel-hub.com/sentine..., Sinergise Ltd.
Microsoft Maps, ESRI Imagery
Music Intro: World’s Fair - God Mode
Music End: Dhaka by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. creativecommons.org/licenses/...
Source: incompetech.com/music/royalty-...
Artist: incompetech.com/
Satellite imagery is - just like KZhead - a black hole. It can be insanely interesting to retrace old steps taken, or to discover new areas of interest. Mother earth never ceases to amaze and inspire. Thanks for the links (only used GE in the past).
Loads of greyed out images
@@michaeltaylor8835 That's exactly what I say saying, everything is triple-filtered and censored and served
It can also be manipulated
How do you get the time changer as I haven't got it on my Google earth ?
@@stephenboyd4934, unsure if question was to me, but I often enjoy the time stamped different street view photos in Google (maps).
1) Google Earth (Desktop version) 2) Sentinel Hub 3) Zoom Earth 4) World Imagery Wayback
This has been really helpful have a local mining company is is being rather naughty and this has been brilliant for attempting to show their behaviors. Since their activity is all behind hills etc and away from the public eye.
You are welcome 🙏
Omg the evil mining company! Lo😂😅
Yea I hate those guys almost as bad as oil companies! how dare they acquire all the critical materials we use to live our decadent western lives
Hiding all those jobs that pay good wages that pay taxes to build infrastructure and pay for social services and security
@@doonhamer252 yep, and destroying the environment and polluting the groundwater that makes people lives terrible.
The reason that some sources are very high in detail but don't update often is that the high definition images doesn't comes from satellites but from aerial photography (and some states don't allow those nor can they fly over war zones etc). Thanks for the tips about these sites, I only knew of GE of these!
Thank you 🙏
I was under the impression that the "enemy" could use real time info in battle, so they only make several month old images available.
@@jakerazmataz852 Hillary and Creepy Joe makes sure the chicoms have everything they need. live and updated.
I used Google Earth desktop version to verify some things in an old book from the late 1400s. Now I can pick up the search with better tools and run my own map server. Its amazimg that place names haven't changed in centuries in North America. That old typeset is the hardest part to get through. Luckily it was translated. Thanks for the info my guy.
Thank you Ben for this series of OSINT tutorials. Very informative and helpful 👍
You are very welcome - thank you for the kind words!
Hi Ben! Thanks for providing these sources. I was struggling to geolocate a place due to old satellite imagery but now because of zoom earth I was able to locate the place. It's been a week since I started focusing on OSINT primarily on geolocating places and because of your guides, articles, blogs and videos I've learnt a whole lot of new things. Thank you very much! Keep up the good work.
You are absolutely welcome
I know I'm late to the party, but people need to keep in mind that for Google Maps/Earth (maybe others too) governments can request to either blur entire regions and/or mess with the satellite images to make them inaccurate and not match real coordinates. China is notorious for this, and pretty much the entire country has been randomly shifted on the maps so that true coordinates are hard to find, and for sensitive areas they're almost all blurred out or moved by even whole kilometers from their real location
Wow just stumbled on your channel, thank you KZhead algorithm, just shared you with a whole bunch of people who already do OSINT And a bunch of journalists, now I have to watch this whole series ha ha, a new rabbit hole
Thank you 🙏
Honestly, I may never or rarely ever use these but it's nice to know they're available.
Immobilized at home (USA), stumbled on your channel, most fun on screen since 2010! Thanks for doing all this work, definitely beneficial for planetary netizens.
Now I'm wondering what was so good about 2010.
@@pakde8002 I'm guessing figure of speech. More or less like "since sliced bread".
@@coriscotupi Or since Betty White, anyway.
@@pakde8002 everything went to shit after 2010.
Possibly the year of immobilized. I am sorry too here 2010 may not of been a good year for you. Please get well and be happy.
Very helpful information! I've been satellite sleuthing for a long time, but you have shown me some new sources here. Much appreciated. I will be spending many hours exploring these new resources!
I would love it if one of these platforms incorporated LIDAR data. As an archaeologist I would find that most interesting.
Yes please
National Library of Scotland provides historical maps which can be viewed side by side or as variable transparency overlays to satellite imagery. Also has Lidar as a layer, 50cm DTM etc, but it's UK only, nevertheless fascinating. One I use the most is the 25" to one mile 1914 maps
You might be looking for DEM (digital elevation model) data which only shows the surface. LiDAR data will also give you returns for foliage at varying heights, buildings, and other features. Go to 4:38 in the video where DEM is one of the choices for maps.
Excellent, I've saved this. I'm a caver in Jamaica, use Google Earth often to help locate lost sites, and didn't even know about the other three. Many thanks.
Thank you for your posting. I had no idea this was out there (pencil user). I am interested in water and watersheds, and all of this news about fires and slides, well, there's room to intervene some providence, not necessarily complex, not that it is possible to view the result from satellite imagery. I look forward to learning more- and using it! Thank you again for posting this.
Thank you very much. this will save me a ton of my time researching different map based topics (and at the same time, will consume it back because of my curiosity).
Awesome stuff mate. Love what you’re doing with the data. I have a plan to use this with WikiCamps. (Once I get my M2 16” MacBook Pro or whatever size it’s going to be). Pity these aren’t available on iPad. Obviously GE does but it is nowhere near as powerful as the desktop version you’re showing us. Top stuff from Qld.
Thanks Ben, opens up so much more of the world to us.
You are a great asset for OSINT community.
Thank you so much - I really appreciate that!
Cool! When it started I was sceptical but now have 3 others to try :) thank you
very useful tutorials, watched the whole series, please keep creating videos!
Thank you - I most certainly will. I am glad you found them useful!
Fabulous stuff. I'll keep this in my tool kit.
I like the presentation style, relaxed yet informative. I would like to see a video on each source alone, especially on how to use all of the features on Google Earth. Thank you!
Thank you! And great shout. I've started with Google Earth here: kzhead.info/sun/aJqgnNVqnnWugIk/bejne.html
We use Sentinel for processing ndvi and ndmi values for agriculture...love your presentation.
Really interested in hearing how you leverage the near infra red for agriculture. Trying to implement local data collection for farms in SSA
@@mediasolv We have a mobile app where farmers can manage their fields. One function is to capture the fields co-ordinates on a Google map..This data is send my the mobile app to our servidce. the service take the values and create a geojson feature. That object is send to our ndvi & ndmi for processing. We create the values and pictures for this specific field for the last 24 months for every week.
@@johanbester4484 is this a commercially available service? Would the app take KML data?
We have one just for New Soth Wales called sixmaps. It has an option to go back to 1943. It’s really interesting to look at the airport (Sir Charles Kingsford Smith Aerodrome) and see the bomber and fighter planes. And go to Malabar beach and see the concrete pyramids (tank traps) lining the beach. And work just commencing on the gun emplacements on the headland.
Excellent video and data sources! Fascinating! I shall be exploring these in more detail. I like Geo-OSINT for a better understanding what is going on in certain parts of the world. I also like to follow aircraft and ship movement relating to world events. I'm a fan, too of experienced users like Bellingcat who with a lot of groundwork have made tools like this (and others tools like Facebook and its imitators in other countries) into an all-seeing eye. All the best from Switzerland, Rob
Is there any way for an outsider like myself to access this "eye"? Sounds really interesting.
how does one follow aircraft sir
@@coolman6233 By using one of the several services that display received ADS-B signals broadcast by aircraft such as FlightRadar24 or FlightAware. ADS-B broadcasts some information about the aircraft as well as the position. Additionally, these services may have reception of Mode S replies, independent of the interrogating radar. In the Single European Sky Mode S is mandatory for almost all types of aircraft. ADS-B is mandatory for heavier, faster aircraft types. I hope this was helpful.
@@coolman6233 And ships can be followed on VesselfFnder, MarineTraffic, MyShipTracking, Vesselfinder - the networks work similarly to the aircraft tracking networks and depend on the ship transmitting AIS data (and it being received successfully!)
I discovered the 1945 imagery on Google Earth a while ago. They have coverage of several cities in Europe that uses b & w prints of aerial photos made into a mosaic. Warsaw is the most dramatic because they actually have photos from 1935 as well. Comparing the vibrant 1935 Warsaw with the bombed out 1945 Russian occupied city is unsettling. You can even spot active AA artillery sites near the damaged rail yards.
Sympathizing with Poland in WW2 by Anglo westerners is always entertaining considering that before WW2, Poland was a military dictatorship that had concentration camps (before the Germans did) that held Jews, Communists and Ukrainians. Poland also wanted colonies in Africa. People always act like Poland was this vIbRaNt dEmOcRaCy that tHe EvIl GeRmAnS attacked for no reason which is just drooling ignorance disguised as history.
Himawari satellite imagery in real time is pretty cool it can also be downloaded in real time with 10 min intervals. It's updated every 10 mins for 24 hours and there's no backtracking.
Thank you....this has opened a whole new world for me.......🌎
Already used all these tools to document fighting in Darfur. Absolutely amazing. Thank you Ben
Awesome to hear! 🙌🙌
This is the most stereotypical white liberal thing I've seen in a while
@@JohnSmith-fq3rg what
@@JohnSmith-fq3rg did you accidentally post on the wrong page?
Wow, I just happened across this video and it's great - thanks! I've been using Google Earth since before it WAS Google Earth (it used to be known as Keyhole before Google bought them in 2004). But I hadn't heard about the other three at all. Many thanks! Subbed, sharing.
Thank you, happy to see an old-time user of GE here. Welcome and glad you enjoyed it!
Wasn’t it also called earth wind at some point in time or am I mixing it up with some other service?
@@z33r0now3 According to Wikipedia NASA's globe software was called WorldWind. Could that be what you're thinking of? Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Earth
Absolutely Fascinating - Thanks for the education, I am off to check out the rest of your channel
Welcome aboard!
With Sentinel Hub there is a cloud icon next to the date selection. Click on it, then turn the dial down to 0. Boom, clouds gone on any image!
Yeah that’s a huge help for the Timelapse too!
A great resource, thanks for taking the time to do this Ben.
Thanks Mark!
Try Houston Texas they used the area for testing and adjustment of early satellites, if they found an anomaly they could drive to the location to see if it or what it is.
Thanks for sharing them with your viewers. A few services I have never heard of before. Will have to check them out. I've been using the Google Earth version for many years, and now I have a few more options to use.
My pleasure!
Great tutorial Ben. Thanks for doing it.
Wow. Thanks Malachy! Really appreciate it - big fan!
Good stuff.great video .would have liked to see included is the ability to pick the light source direction,and what time of day to control the brightness levels which shows shadows and other useful perspective info...but still a great video with info for the beginner and more advanced users.I'm looking out for your next one that is more on the newest tech and game changing uses of all this new tech.which is even spawn new feilds of study and expirteese.arial archeology.using gps,sattalite imaging , used to discover buried objects,lost civilizations,sunken ships,etc.pro level.tricks and techniques .what levels of clearance or acces can private individuals pay for .and what level of detail is there.how much time delay is there.background checks,etc.
Gracias por el vídeo me fue de gran utilidad, saludos desde Buenos Aires Argentina 🇦🇷
Just stumbled on this. Excellent stuff. Thanks for the links. You've got a lot of knowledge.
Thanks for watching!
Thanks - great video and very helpful to see how many rabbit holes I can explore with the tools you mentioned
Great! Thank you!
This was fascinating and very, very informative. I'm subscribing!
Thank you 🙏
@@Bendobrown what about paid satellite imagery services? I know that defeats the purpose of osint but there isn’t a lot info on the paid services
I love maps so thank you so much for this. I have found google maps and earth here in the Philippines to often be quite dated not showing building developments for a couple of years or more.
Have you tried Satellites Pro? It's one I use a lot for SE Asia and has crystal clear imagery in a lot of places GE doesn't. Try here for example: satellites.pro/Philippines_map#12.701806,124.035321,19
Some viewers might wonder where the imagery comes from before Earth observation satellites were placed in orbit. In many cases high resolution photography was done from aircraft during the earlier days and this has been geo-rectified and then uploaded into the satellite imagery databases.
Brilliant! Please continue making such videos.
Thanks, will do!
I like to run GE while I read the world online news, I'll often go looking for places I've read about that morning, I usually run it with the "photos" filter on, to see the monuments, churches, playgrounds, amusement parks etc... photos tourists from better times have posted. It can be quite moving actually.
UPDATE: For the archive tool from #4 - the date that you see on the screen is the date that it was published in the imagery basemap. If you 'click' on the actual satellite image you will get more details as to the capture date. Zoom Earth appears to have since changed imagery access, but satellites.pro has the imagery available, here's the link: satellites.pro/Djibouti_map#11.595957,43.132867,19 For those wondering about the images over the London in 1945, that's right, they are not satellite images. They are aerial images. Many of them show destruction of WWII. You can see more on how and where to find that aerial imagery here: kzhead.info/sun/qd6SocqhnKCXaXk/bejne.html
@Jupiter Rules Blue Marble. Not the modern digital mosaic, but the original, 1972 image photographed with a Hasselblad camera, captured on cellulose negative film by the Apollo 17 crew from a distance of some 29,000 kilometers or 18,000 miles.
@Jupiter Rules You are mistaken. There are dozens of full-disk images made every day by geostationary satellites (search for Himawari, the Japanese satellite). Also, there is the DSCOVR Program (search) among others, which also produces a number of daily full-disk images of the Earth, in this case from a Lagrange point L1, some 1.6 million km (or some 950,000 miles)from the Earth. That's about four times as far from Earth as the Moon. None of those are "CGI".
@@coriscotupi Exactly. But what I have learned attempting to educate flat earthers is that the majority of them don't even know the difference between "mosiac" and "cgi" and use the term interchangeably.
@@AC-wp7em Most of them don't know the difference between 2+2 and 2+3. And they're proud of it.
@@coriscotupi They have "Doctors" working today in the US who believe the vaxx made them "magnetic" (actually - sweat-sticky)...
Thanks for presenting those very useful tools.
This is a very good tutorial for private individuals, thanks a lot for detailed information.
Very welcome 🙏
Great, I've been looking for a way to look up my ufo sighting. Maybe the timeline feature might help? Got it on video but 2nd verification would kick ass
Superb video, thank you 👏
Glad you liked it!
Love these . thanks for sharing! Ventusky is great for weather!
Maxar research brought me here.. - Very well made presentation of highly interesting tools. Thanks a lot 👍🏻
You are very welcome. Thanks for visiting 🙏
I also find Mapbox really useful, they have some great base maps and their non-satellite-maps are available either as raster or vector tiles. Also NASA provides much more data, although it can sometimes be a bit hard to get a workflow going.
Real area of interest are triple-filtered and censored
@@Le_Mouton_Noir what do you mean?
@@Syndesi Nothing more than what I wrote, tools like Google Earth and all others are filtered, censored and served. You can see what you are allowed to see. Nothing more, nothing less. Regards
@@Le_Mouton_Noir Do you have some representative examples?
@@cerealspiller Look for "List of satellite map images with missing or unclear data" 7P8J8937+H2
That is a very informative video, thanks for taking the trouble.
Very welcome 🙏
Great resource. Didn't know about these, only Google Earth. Thanks 👍
thanks for the video - very helpful info do you know where one can find detailed topo maps (1 meter or finer elevation detail)?
Ben I have always used Earth but it appears to be about 3 years behind with it's imagery in Brisbane. Six maps is more up to date. Google does have a lot more features though.
Haha I live in a small Texas town and I live 1 block from City hall. Googles street view of my house was taken before 2008 L😂
Now curiousity is killing me about what happened to these villages, and they don't look that small either.
Subscribed. Nice work Ben, much appreciated.
Much appreciated!
This is fantastic. Thank you!
For China there is also Baidu Earth, which often gives you clearer landmarks, all in Chinese, that are more accurate. Google Earth is quite inaccurate within China. That said, there are many areas of China that lack satellite imagery, for political and national security issues. I'm eager to try these tools on China!
Especially (occup1ed) Xinjiang and Tibet!
The Horse May Open?/;-)))Peace/;-)))I HpE
you didn't mention Mapbox. i find, in my area anyway(canada), that it is way more current than googlearth. by years and years. and, in many instances, much clearer as well. question. do the Pro versions offer anything worthwhile? like what is better about googlearth pro over regular googlearth?
Very nice video… So useful. thank you !
Very useful resources. Thanks.
I had used Google Earth Real Time when it was first launched. It had more closer zooming. A few months later, USDOD restricted the Real Time and magnification.
They also started to wipe some maps and stitching them together with CGI or older maps. Lots of new discovery was found in west part of USA but un accessible due to everything being Military owned (no dig permit allowed to even check)
Amazing to watch humanity at a faster and faster pace clear cut and burn down our last forests and pave over vast expanses of land. Clearly through our collective stupidity and greed our days grow shorter and shorter, troubling indeed
Thanks for the video. I was unaware that TerraServer no longer exits. I loved using them before Google Earth.
Yes that was a very sad day when it ended
Hey Ben!!! Thanks for the Sources, you are the BEST!!
Very welcome!
Cool, thanks! One question, what happened to those villages? Natural disasters or by armed conflict? It kind of freaked me out, hope nothing bad happened to all of those villagers!
Ethnic cleansing.
Boko Haram
Wiped them out in the name of democracy
Two words: Boko Haram
Islam happened to them
Thanks, great to know. Will we ever see real time satellite? Too bad, Starlink didn't include cameras on their sats.
even if there were cameras on starlink sats, those things are so small that they couldnt possibly fit a camera with any meaningful resolution
Thank you very much for lyour youtube. I have always been nosey/curious and found your page fascinating!
Glad you enjoy it!
Just found this video…. Really interesting. Had no idea this info was available. Thank you!
Welcome!
should be very interesting to see what AI engines will do with all this data to extrapolate patterns and produce animations, perhaps correlated with photos of the area taken by phones and such.
Ha Like to see him get us private people access to the entire Antartica without Googles air brushing all kinds of anomalies like they do none stop…
Yes can you help Access Antartica in it’s pure raw form?
Thank you for this brief review/show, why are google maps so old, I'm trying to follow events in Ukraine and the maps are 18 months old
I have found the same issues with google earth/maps here in the Philippines as they are often several years old.
Thanks Graham, yes the imagery definitely isn't up to date as to what it could be in many conflict areas. If you're after more recent coverage, which includes satellite shots from past days/weeks, you can visit our project called the Russia Ukraine Monitor Map here: maphub.net/Cen4infoRes/russian-ukraine-monitor
Excellent. Very cool. Thank you for the info.
Brilliant info, thank you. Cheers from Wales.
Like Truth Seeker below, I just stumbled across this incredibly useful video. Thank you so much! Sadly, some 'before' and 'after' imagery is and will be horrifying. I look forward to seeing the other videos you have made / make.
Thank you 🙏
How is it possible for Google earth to have satellite imagery of London in 1945 when the first satellite was not launched until October 4, 1957?
Those are aerial photos, not satellite images.
And the first commercial imagery satellite was not launched until September 1999 ....
Great video. Thanks for sharing.
As a metal detector hobbyist, this would be nice on a phone. So many times opportunities arise unecpectedly in the field, with no time for sit down research. But I do appreciate the info to use when I'm prepping a trip. Thank you.👍
You are welcome!
Some of the images you see (particularly before the 1960s) are actually from high altitude aircraft not satellites eg, London in 1945 image is a composite of aircraft imaging as NO satellites existed then. The correct term for using aircraft and satellites is "overhead imagery".
Ok thanks, first time seeing this, great info,
Very well done. I wonder which one updates and how often.
thanks mate, very very useful in my line of work
Glad it helped
Hi. This is very helpful. I went to the World Imagery Wayback and I am not seeing changes I would expect to see between certain dates listed as available. What an I missing? Thanks, much. Also, is there a way to get finer resolution than 100m on Sentinel?
Cool links ! Thank you!!
Very informative, thank you
A great resource, thank you
Thank you!
ممكن مساعدة اخي
Very informative... Hope to see & learn much more.
the last one is similar to "historic aerials" with the slider. HS has a couple other optioms as well like flashlight. check it out if you' ve never heard of it.
THIS IS AWESOME. Thank you!
You're very welcome!
Thank You I’m a Military War buff History is amazing this is superb🇺🇸
Thank you 🙏
Nicely done! 👍 Thank you!
Thank you 🙏
enjoyed your talkthrough... love maps
Thank you. Very useful information
You are welcome
Excellent !! thank you very much !!!!!!
Thanks for turning me on to some amazing tools.
hello- new guy here- liked and subbed- this is the kind of stuff i love to see and learn on internet. thanks so much ! wow a whole village gone?? i wonder what happened?
Thank you for sharing your research.
My pleasure!
Thanks. It was really helpful to know all of this information
Glad it was helpful!
Amazing video, thanks.
Glad you liked it!