If you’ve checked out Google lately, you might have noticed one of the 'in' things online at the moment is satellite photography. This gives viewers the chance to check out aerial photos that have been taken from satellites that are miles above the earth. People are fascinated by the idea that they can zoom in on their own neighborhoods and homes as well as far away places that they have never visited. You can basically see an aerial view of just about anywhere on earth and zoom in on it for a closer look. It’s great for checking out some of the wonders of the world and even some stunning images of space and other planets.

This type of photography is becoming more familiar to us these days, but the first known satellite images of Earth were actually taken by a weather satellite way back in 1960. However, it’s possible the Soviets may have taken satellite photos even earlier than that during a mission to film the moon.   It’s pretty easy to check out satellite photos these days as NASA is making many of them available to the public. Other countries are also getting onboard with their own satellite programs and there are even several private companies out there that take commercial satellite photos. And let’s not forget the government is always watching us, so they too are big players when it comes to this type of photography.

The quality of images taken from satellites can vary quite a bit. Resolution of 10 meters or better is available for most cities in the world and resolution of 100-500 meters is common for the outlying areas and suburbs. Most of the earth itself has a resolution of 1 kilometer or better. Aerial photography is often combined with satellite images to create better resolution. Satellite photography has become more popular recently as it became widely available when image databases were offered by various institutions and companies throughout the world.

While taking a look at the landscape from the sky can be interesting and a lot of fun, the satellite images are also very useful for a wide variety of things such as agriculture, geology, forestry, city planning, education, intelligence, elevation maps, crime solving and of course warfare. It’s also become a vital part of modern day national defence as satellites can track troop movements as well as detecting possible enemy weapons programs.

The satellites can only get a view of relatively small areas at a single time, so photographing a large area actually takes some time. Satellites used for this type of photography are lower in orbit and real time images of specific areas can sometimes be complicated. Of course the images produced can’t be updated daily, so the photos you look at could be a little bit on the old side. But that’s fine as places such as Niagara Falls and the Grand Canyon look much the same now as they did 100 years ago.

Of course, unless you are in habit of quick outfit changes in telephone booths, or have a career as an astronaut, this technique isn’t something you can try out for yourself, but this type of photography is a great inspiration for looking at the world from a different angle.