Amazing Satellite Images With 0.5 Meter Resolution

November 25, 2010 Marco | Editor

The GeoEye 1 satellite orbits 684 kilometres above Earth. It shoots images for Google Earth and Google Maps applications. The satellite was launched in September at a cost of over $500 million. The company has already shared impressive high resolution images from all over the Globe on their website (and they can be used non-commercially with attribution). Impressive. And here are some examples, do check out the site, it’s quite addictive.

The 828 metre Burj Khalifa skyscraper, the tallest building in the world.

This half-meter resolution satellite image features the Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, located about five miles south-southeast of Tucson, Arizona. The image shows this U.S. Air Force base’s aircraft graveyard, which is the largest in terms of number of planes in the world. Hundreds of old military and other aircraft are stationed here to either be stored indefinitely, pulped, stripped or restored for service. The image was taken by the GeoEye-1 satellite from 423 miles in space on Oct. 22, 2009 as it moved from north to south over the United States at a speed of four miles per second.

This one-meter resolution satellite image shows a field located in southeastern Nebraska just northwest of Offutt Air Force Base, home of the 55th Wing or the Fightin’ Fifty-Fifth. The high-resolution image of the field shows the words “Thank You! For Freedom!” and can be seen from Offutt’s air space at takeoff and landing. GeoEye’s IKONOS satellite took the image on November 2, 2010 while flying 423 miles above the Earth at an average speed of four miles per second.

Satellite image courtesy of GeoEye