Earth Imagery Yesterday and Today

Humans have been photographing the earth from above ever since first taking flight at the beginning of the 20th century. In World War I, images taken from aircraft provided military intelligence and informed battle strategy; aerial imagery became even more central to military operations during World War II. In the following decades, with the launch of satellites, use of earth imagery continued to expand, still focused on military applications. The US and Soviet Union both used satellite imagery to monitor military activities during the cold war. At the same time, other governmental applications emerged - mapping, environmental research, and weather monitoring - though it wasn’t until the 1980s that private companies started to produce aerial imagery and additional commercial applications began to emerge.

Over the next two decades, various private companies entered the imagery industry, capturing now-digital images with purpose-built satellites and manned-aircraft aerial photography. While military and intelligence applications remained a large driver of demand, more diverse uses also emerged: agriculture, environmental monitoring and research, disaster response, and urban planning. The evolving satellite industry made aerial imagery more accessible and with more options. Companies like DigitalGlobe (now Maxar Technologies) began launching satellites capable of capturing 30 centimeters per pixel resolution imagery in the 2000s, while others like Planet Labs developed smaller satellites capable of capturing more frequent images at a more affordable cost, albeit lower resolution of 3-5 meters per pixel. Around 2010, imagery captured by commercial manned-aircraft imagery providers became a new norm. Nearmap and EagleView, two current leaders in high-resolution aerial imagery, began producing aerial images at 10 cm per pixel, using specialized aircraft equipped with high-powered and expensive cameras to capture images over a specific area. The higher resolution of these images opened up additional use cases in construction, insurance, property assessment, and real estate development.

As commercial applications were ramping up rapidly, Google brought free earth imagery to the screens of home computers everywhere, captivating users with its ability to explore all parts of the world through Google Earth and Google Street View. In 2004, Google acquired KeyHole Inc led by John Hanke, which was rebranded into Google Earth, Maps, and eventually Streetview, forming the core of Google’s GEO division. In rolling out these tools, their creators drew on imagery from a variety of sources (NASA and commercial satellite imagery providers as well as aircraft-captured aerial imagery) to create an accessible tool for looking back at places we know and visually exploring ones we could only dream of going. It’s fair to say that Google Earth opened people’s eyes to what imagery could be.

Now, in the past decade, drone imagery has emerged as the next innovation that is revolutionizing the earth imagery industry. Drones can capture local earth images at a higher resolution, higher frequency, and lower cost than any other method. Throughout the 2000s and 2010s, drone technology evolved from early military use, and drones became lighter, cheaper, and more performant, leading to their use as a third method for capturing earth imagery.

While satellites and manned aircraft still hold an advantage for capturing a large area at one time, drones offer a lower-cost option for capturing smaller areas. Moreover, drones can capture higher resolution images than both satellite and manned-aircraft imagery, and offer the option for more frequent capture.

Just as manned-aircraft imagery opened up new use cases beyond those of satellite imagery due to the higher resolutions, drone photography is also creating myriad opportunities for new applications.