Satellite and aerial imagery data

Satellite and aerial imagery shows the earth's surface from above. Agriculture, insurance, energy, mining, infrastructure, environmental and investment teams use it to monitor assets, measure change, estimate activity and assess damage after storms, floods or fires.

Typical fields:

• Image or scene ID
• Capture date and time
• Sensor type: optical, multispectral, radar (SAR) or aerial
• Ground resolution in meters or centimeters
• Cloud cover percentage
• Footprint polygon and coordinate reference system
• Processing level: raw, orthorectified or analysis-ready
• Derived analytics: object counts, change detection, vegetation indices

Sources and collection

Imagery comes from commercial satellite constellations, public programs such as Copernicus Sentinel and Landsat, aircraft and drones. Optical imagery needs daylight and clear skies; synthetic aperture radar sees through clouds and at night. Providers sell archive images, task satellites to capture new ones, or sell derived analytics instead of raw pixels.

Delivery and pricing

Delivered as GeoTIFF or cloud-optimized files through cloud storage, APIs or platforms. Pricing is commonly per square kilometer with a minimum order area, with higher prices for finer resolution, new tasking and rush delivery. Subscriptions for monitoring defined areas and analytics feeds are also common.

Before you buy

• Match resolution to the objects you need to see, and check whether a coarser, cheaper resolution would do.
• Ask about revisit frequency and archive depth over your area.
• Check typical cloud cover for your region and season, or consider radar.
• Confirm processing level and geolocation accuracy.
• Review licence terms for sharing images and derived products.