Many users are interested in online satellite maps, which make it possible to enjoy the view of our planet's favorite places from a bird's eye view. There are a lot of such services on the web, and all of their diversity should not be misleading - most of these sites use the classic API from Google Maps. However, there are also a number of resources that use their own tools to create high quality satellite maps. In this article, I will talk about the best high resolution satellite maps available online in 2017-2018, and also explain how to use them.
When creating satellite maps of the earth's surface, both images from space satellites and photos from special aircraft are usually used, which allow photographing at a bird's-eye flight (250-500 meters).
The satellite maps of the highest resolution created in this way are regularly updated, and usually images from them are no more than 2-3 years old.
Most of the network services do not have the ability to create their own satellite maps. Usually they use maps from other, more powerful services (usually Google Maps). At the same time, at the bottom (or at the top) of the screen, you can find a mention of the copyright of any company to demonstrate these cards.
Viewing satellite maps in real time is now not available for the average user, since such tools are used primarily for military purposes. Users have access to maps, photos for which were taken over the past months (or even years). It should be understood that any military objects may be deliberately retouched in order to hide them from interested parties.
Let's move on to the description of the services that allow us to enjoy the capabilities of satellite maps.
Google Maps - high resolution view from space
Bing Maps - online satellite maps service
Among the online cartographic services of decent quality, one cannot pass by the service "Bing Maps", which is the brainchild of Microsoft. Like the other resources I have described, this site provides fairly high-quality photographs of surfaces created using satellite and aerial photography.
Bing Maps is one of the most popular mapping services in the United States. The functionality of the service is similar to the analogs already described above:
At the same time, using the search button, you can determine the online location of a specific satellite, and by clicking on any satellite on the map, you will receive brief information about it (country, size, launch date, and so on).
Conclusion
To display high-resolution satellite maps online, you should use one of the network solutions I have listed. The most popular on a global scale is the Google Maps service, so I recommend using this resource to work with satellite maps online. If you are interested in viewing geolocations on the territory of the Russian Federation, then it is better to use the Yandex.Maps toolkit. The frequency of their updates in the relations of our country surpasses that of Google Maps.
This article will be useful to everyone who has ever used maps (hereinafter - geographic) on mobile devices. Whether you are a serious card user, like hunters, athletes, travelers, or look at maps from time to time, for example, before a business trip, in any case, sooner or later you will encounter a situation when a map is needed, but you cannot see it online. for the lack of something - a stable connection, paid Internet, or in general you are in roaming. In this case, programs come to the rescue that allow you to view cards offline. There are many such programs, for myself I chose OruxMaps (available only for Android) below I will explain why and how to work with it. You will learn how to save the map offline, how to access not only the rectangular map, but also, for example, how to save 500 m along each side of the road for several kilometers, etc.
Who does not fit - OruxMaps will not replace specialized car navigators who know how to get around the junction and where the speedometers are hidden.
ATTENTION! The version of OruxMaps with offline map uploading functionality was kicked out of Google Play! Now the program needs to be installed directly from the site - http://www.oruxmaps.com/cs/en/
The first question is why not use standard maps? The most popular mapping services are those that come with a mobile device. I will consider two of them - Yandex and Google maps. Each has its own pros and cons. Google maps allow you to save a site on the screen, however, practice shows that not all sites have such an opportunity, besides, you can only save Google maps, but not other other map services. You can save the selected map in Yandex maps, but off-line maps are not available for all points of the world.
In the preinstalled maps, you can see the required area, it will be saved in the device cache and will be available offline, but only where you looked. This option is completely inappropriate, since when it comes to a large area, viewing and scrolling through it on the screen is a time-consuming task, calluses on the fingers and holes in the screen. Both programs do not allow working with geographic coordinates normally.
Specialized programs, such as the most popular OziExplorer, are quite complicated for an unprepared user, even I tried to work with it several times, since pre-satellite times, nevertheless I did not "master" it.
OruxMaps
OruxMaps seems to be specially designed for my interests. It has a fairly large selection of maps (satellites, ground, schemes) from various map services, you can easily switch between them. It allows you to work with any type of GPS coordinates, easily export / import tracks and points to an SD card or disk (it is already clear why Android), and, of course, download offline maps, incl. satellite imagery.
The program interface is classic for cartographic programs.
In the menu you can choose any available map or select an offline map and drive / walk on it.
You can also load the necessary tracks / points from any popular format.
A very important point - OruxMaps works not only with its own offline maps, but also with strangers. You can easily take an open source map archive and load it into OruxMaps for further work.
Selecting the upper left and lower right corners
Poke at the top left corner of the screen, then poke at the bottom right. A rectangle will be highlighted on the screen and will be saved. Now for one important point. To an untrained user it seems that the maps are scaled smoothly. They actually consist of a large number of square photographs of the surface. And every time you fall down, a new layer of photos with higher detail is loaded. There are different numbers of such layers in different maps.
Choosing the number of layers
So when saving your map offline, you need to decide what depth of detail you need to go down to. The lower (more detailed) you go, the more squares you need to save to your smartphone, the longer the process will take and the more space it will take on the phone's card / memory. Find a reasonable balance empirically. If you do not need a square, but some kind of elongated path, you can make several offline squares along this path and switch between them along the way.
Important - during the download, you can use other programs, you can return to OruxMaps through the list of programs, but you cannot re-run OruxMaps! If you hit the icon, the download is interrupted. I don’t know for all or not, but for me it’s for sure. Unsubscribe like yours.
Map loading started
In general, with this it would seem everything, but no.
It is not very convenient to generate offline maps on a smartphone, it would be cool to make it on a computer and then upload it to OruxMaps. There is such an opportunity too! Several years ago I wrote about the program. The program has a desktop client SAS.Planeta which allows you to download and generate the necessary map. The official website of the program is sasgis.org/sasplaneta. One of the possibilities is to make a selection "along the path", draw a path and set the footage to the left and right of your path. All squares that fall within this range will be loaded.
I will not describe in detail how to work with SAS. Planet, since this topic is already for advanced people, they will be able to figure it out themselves, everyone else will have enough standard functionality.
For everyone else, my advice. When planning a trip to any place where you can potentially encounter the unavailability of online map services, open OruxMaps, select so that the entire required area fits on the screen (here is my choice for Dubai),
check what depth you need, for the Emirates I stopped at level 15, there was enough detail, and the size of the map and its upload time were acceptable. If you use satellite maps, you will most likely need a higher level of detail, since the lowest layer is most often important in the satellite, where mushrooms, anthills and their own traps, forgotten last year, are already visible.
Next, be sure to put on the map your waypoints - the hotel where you plan to stay, attractions, other objects. Athletes themselves know what to do. When traveling, this will help you assess the scale of distances and, on occasion, send everyone to hell, "I'll get it myself" (if you are traveling in a group). It is very convenient to control taxi drivers, and getting into the car immediately revealingly gets out the navigator.
In general, use it, I hope it will come in handy.
How to connect satellite images
To do this, download the finished file or it, and overwrite the original in the oruxmaps / mapfiles folder on your smartphone and you will have a choice of all google maps (satellite, scheme, hybrid, Earth), OpenStreet and Yandex. Satellites, as well as some Soviet maps ...
version of the raster map at maximum magnification. Section of the Old Austrian road. Slightly compressed, the resolution is better on the smartphone. But the scale cannot be made smaller.
Microsoft Bing Maps added, thanks to Sergey Yablokov!
General Staff maps are stored in raster format, their total volume occupies about 40 GB, while there were no people willing to make an online service with the ability to connect via Orux, so there is only one option - download the desired piece of the map, process and upload to Orux. For an online alternative see loadmap.net
Cadastral maps of Rosreestr visually very suitable for connecting to OruxMaps, but have not yet found how to register it in the settings, if anyone has information, I would be grateful if you let me know.
By Yandex cards - there is a large displacement in determining the coordinates, most likely Yandex introduces it on purpose to complicate the work of "left" services.
Last file update - 23.07.2016
How do I remove offline maps from my device?
Offline maps take up space on your phone's memory. If you no longer need them, you can delete them with any file manager. Maps are located at:
Satellite maps from Googleare popular. It is a handy and practical tool that allows you to view the planet at any scale. Satellite imagery reveals details: small streets and alleys near your home, cities, countries and continents. This became possible thanks to satellite imagery.
Earlier to receive images from Space shooting with a television camera with signal transmission to the station or shooting with a special photographic camera, the pictures of which were displayed on film, were used. Today, modern space technology makes it possible to look at the planet thanks to the scanning mechanism embedded in satellites.
Satellite map: application and purposes
Currently, a real-time satellite map of the world is used in many areas: analyzing the state of agricultural fields, forests, the ocean and identifying the location of friends using a smartphone. Google's satellite map is used for these resources.
The main purpose of using satellite images of the world from Google remains navigation. The site presents a diagram of the world showing continents, states, cities, streets and highways. This helps to navigate the area, assess its landscape and simply travel around the Earth without leaving home.
Quality of images of the world map online from the satellite
The highest resolution images are available for the largest cities in Ukraine, America, Russia, Belarus, Asia, Europe and Oceania with a population of over a million. For settlements with fewer inhabitants, images are available in a limited number and of worse quality.
Despite this, everyone can take a closer look at the territory of their home, nearby streets, see a photo of the planet from almost any point. Pictures reveal placement:
- cities, towns, villages,
- streets, lanes
- rivers, seas, lakes, forest zones, deserts, etc.
Good quality of cartographic images allows you to see the landscape of the selected area in detail.
Google Maps Satellite Features:
Google satellite maps help you see objects in detail that are difficult to assess on conventional diagrams. Satellite imagery preserves the natural shape of the object, its size and colors. Regular, classic maps, before printing and circulation, undergo editorial work to match the scale, as a result of which the natural colors of the terrain and the shapes of objects are lost. Naturalness is preserved on cartographic images.
In addition, on the map, you can quickly find the city of interest in any country. The diagram has a column in which in Russian you can indicate the country, city and even the house number. In a second, the diagram will zoom in and show the location of the given object and those that are next to it.
World satellite map mode
Satellite images have the ability to switch to world map mode. It helps to view the territory on the planet's surface, get as close as possible to the selected object, and consider the layout of the placement. This mode allows you to quickly and conveniently plan the route of a trip, movement around the city, find attractions, etc.
By specifying a house number, the diagram will display its location relative to the city center in a second. It is also possible to plot a route from an initially specified object. To do this, you need to click on the appropriate button and enter the address.
Earth map from satellite to site
the site allows users to use a satellite map in real time for free. For convenience, the map is divided into countries. To search for a specific city or familiarize yourself with the area of \u200b\u200bthe state, click on the one you are interested in and start your "travel". The service is constantly improving, work is underway to place satellite images in high resolution in small settlements.
The good quality of online satellite cartographic images posted on our website helps to quickly find the desired object, inspect the landscape, estimate the distance between cities, find out the location of forests, rivers, seas and oceans. With Voweb, travel around the world has become even more accessible.
Several applications can be used for free observation of the Earth's surface and viewing satellite images online. In Russia, the most popular are two of them: Google Maps and Yandex Maps. Both services boast good quality high-resolution satellite imagery in most countries.
Yandex Maps is an online application from Russian developers, so the cities of Russia are more accurately worked out in it. It has built-in functionality for viewing traffic load data (large settlements), demographic and geodata. Google maps contain no less high-quality satellite images of the territory of the Russian Federation, but data on land plots and traffic are available only for the United States.
View map of Planet Earth from satellite online
Below you can see the built-in map from Google. For more stable operation of the plugin, we recommend using the Google Chrome browser. If you see an error message, please update the specified plugin and then reload the page.
Watch Google Earth from satellite, in real time online:
Another advantage of Google Maps is the presence of a client application for working with satellite images. This means that access to the service can be obtained not only through a browser, but also through a previously downloaded program. It has much more opportunities for viewing and studying satellite images, working with a three-dimensional virtual globe.
3D satellite map from Google (downloadable application, not online version) allows you to:
- use a quick search for the desired objects by name or coordinates;
- take screenshots and record high quality videos;
- work offline (preliminary synchronization via the Internet is required);
- use a flight simulator for more convenient movement between objects;
- save "favorite places" to quickly move between them;
- view not only the Earth's surface, but also pictures of other celestial bodies (Mars, Moon, etc.).
You can work with Google satellite maps through a client application or a browser. A plug-in is available on the official page of the program that allows you to use an interactive map on any web resource. It is enough to embed its address into the program code of the site. For display, you can select both the entire surface and a specific area (you will have to enter coordinates). Control - using a computer mouse and keyboard (ctrl + mouse wheel to zoom, cursor to move) or using the icons indicated on the map ("plus" - zoom in, "minus" - zoom out, move with the cursor).
The Google Earth service in real time allows you to work with several types of maps, each of which reflects certain data on satellite images. It is convenient to switch between them “without losing progress” (the program remembers where you “were”). Available view modes:
- satellite landscape map (geographic objects, features of the Earth's surface);
- physical map (detailed satellite images of the surface, cities, streets, their names);
- schematic geographic map for more accurate study of surface imagery.
The satellite image is automatically uploaded in the vicinity, so a stable Internet connection is required to work. For Google Earth to work offline, you need to download an application for Windows or another operating system. Its operation also requires the Internet, but only for the first launch, after which the program synchronizes all the necessary data (satellite images of the surface, 3D models of buildings, names of geographical and other objects) after which it will be possible to work with the received data without direct access to the Internet.
An excellent program for viewing not only images of the Earth, but also of the Moon and even Mars. Will become a faithful assistant to all virtual travelers.
Have you read Tolkien's The Hobbit or There and Back again? If "yes", then for sure you also wanted to travel with brave heroes somewhere to distant unknown countries. If "no", then all the same, it seems to me that you have had moments when you want to leave all your business, and set off on a path.
Dreams are dreams, but not always routine gives us a break and allows us to escape even for a short walk outside the city. But you really want to see the world!
With the development of information technology, almost everything becomes real. Today you can, without leaving your home / office, see, for example, all the sights of London and Paris. No, I'm not talking about webcams that broadcast what is happening in different parts of the globe on the air, but about a more global project - virtual satellite maps of the world.
Various world famous services such as Google, Wiki, Yandex, etc. create their own variations on this topic, but the essence remains the same - to provide the user with the opportunity to see a satellite image of any area in high resolution.
If you are not familiar with any of these services yet, then I will tell you how you can quickly fix this situation. Use the program SAS.Planet.
SAS Capabilities Planet
- display of 33 maps from 16 different sources;
- work offline (maps are loaded from the cache);
- calculation of coordinates of a given area;
- calculation of distances between two or more points;
- work in tandem with a GPS navigator;
- loading and displaying wikimapia objects;
- creation of maps of any area.
Today SAS.Planeta is one of the most, so to speak, complex programs that can take us on a "tour" not only around the Earth, but also show us the closest part of the Universe!
But do not talk a lot, let's get down to business. The program does not require installation, so all you need to do is unpack the downloaded archive into any folder (although the program comes directly from the archive). Run the exe file of the program and see the following window:
Configuring SAS.Planet
The first thing to notice is where the image acquisition is configured from. By default, you will have "Cash". This means that SAS.Planeta works offline, and information about the maps comes from the program cache. To change this, click on the arrow next to the computer image and select one of two options: "Internet" or "Cache and Internet".
If you choose the first option, then map files displayed directly from the Internet, which improves the rendering speed.
If you choose the second option, then all downloaded images are first cached (saved in the cache), and only then displayed on the map. This method is longer, but in return you get all viewed maps on your PC, and you can view and edit them at any time (having previously enabled work only with the cache).
Map display options
The maps themselves in the program are of several types (see the "Maps" menu): "Satellite", "Map", "Landscape".
"Sputnik" displays a direct satellite image of the selected part of the planet. This is perhaps the most interesting type of map, since we can see even very small details (for example, see our house :)).
"Map" is an already processed space image, where all the detailing is reduced only to the selection of highways (something like a world road map :)). This type of image can be used to create maps for GPS navigators.
"Landscape" is also a simplified version of a satellite image, but at the same time with details on relief forms. These maps can also be used in GPS navigators if you are going to hike.
Additional layers on maps
In addition to these types of maps, SAS.Planet also has a "Layers" menu. Here are available a kind of "overlays" for the main cards, which expand their functionality or information content. Let's dwell on some of them.
If you live in a big city where traffic jams constantly occur on the roads, you can easily avoid this trouble thanks to the "Traffic" layer.
The map shows in several colors those roads that are free (green), relatively free (yellow), and "clogged" (red). You just have to explore the free tracks and plan your path so as to avoid all traffic jams.
Wikimapia landmarks layer
For curious people who are interested in various interesting places in different cities, there is a "Wikimapia" layer.
By activating this layer, you will see the highlighted areas on the map that correspond to the location of attractions. All you have to do is click on this area, and you will see a description with a photo (or without) of this place.
Panoramio Photo Layer
And, continuing the theme of virtual travel, let's pay attention to the "Panoramio" layer.
This service allows you to post and view photos of different areas. After activating the layer, small mugs will appear on the main map, which indicate the photos taken in one place or another.
Space object maps
Oh yes! I completely forgot about space maps. SAS.Planet has maps of the Moon, Mars and the Starry sky.
Just select the one you need in the "Maps" menu (section "Space"), and at least for a minute become an "astronaut" :). The only drawback is that there are no layers for these maps that would contain information about your current location. Although, as they say, there is a silver lining.
I suggest a little "game" :). Turn on a regular map of the Earth, find your city and, without changing the position of the map, replace it with a map of the starry sky or Mars, say. Believe me, quite an interesting activity :).
But that's all, as they say, lyrics. Let's continue our acquaintance with the program. And now let's take a look at its additional functions.
Map editing
And the first one is selecting and editing the map. Activate, for example, the Rectangular Area tool and select a part of the depicted map (for example, the center of Moscow). The following window will appear:
The most interesting functions here are "Glue", "Shape" and "Export". With the help of all these tools, you can create your own map separately, independent of the program, and save it.
"Glue" allows you to create your own map from several separate tiles (parts of the map in SAS.Planet). All you need to specify is the number of fragments, the quality of the final image and create bindings for GPS (you don't need to create them).
The "Generate" tool allows you to create a map of the same area, but with a lower resolution from an already loaded map with a certain resolution. Unclear? Let me explain: let's say you have a map of the same Moscow with a magnification of 12. From it you can recreate all maps of a smaller scale (11, 10, 9 ...). All that is needed is to indicate the final scale.
Thanks to "Export" you can directly, without unnecessary hassle, convert the finished map into the desired format (for example, for the iPhone).
Measuring distances between points
Having at hand SAS.Planeta, you can easily find out the distance from point "A" to point "B". Activate the "Measure Distance" tool and draw our path. For example, we want to know how long you need to walk from the Kitay-Gorod metro station to the Chkalovskaya metro station. We draw a "track" and at its very end we see the result with an accuracy of centimeters.
If you are a happy owner of a GPS navigator, then you can easily synchronize SAS.Planeta with it. All you need to do is click on the button "Connect to GPS-receiver" and its location will be displayed on your map.
conclusions
Now you know almost everything about the SAS.Planet program. When planning your trip, do not forget to stock up on maps of the place you are going to and you will never get lost in unfamiliar terrain. Moreover, the maps can be saved as ordinary drawings (for example, take a screenshot of the screen) and downloaded to your mobile phone or printed on a printer (as you like more :)).
P.S. It is allowed to freely copy and quote this article, provided that an open active link to the source is indicated and the authorship of Ruslan Tertyshny is preserved.