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With an advent of online mapping tools, its most important facet ‘satellite imagery’ has also grown with leaps and bonds. And it wouldn’t be wrong to say that mapping tools are incomplete without these satellites imageries. Well-known Internet tycoons have joined the mapping wagon to win race by serving something interesting that can allure millions of users, but most of them such as Microsoft, Google and Yahoo indexes same kind of images that gives an impression of duplicate images. Google is taking a step to introduce a set of high-resolution ravishing imageries by signing an exclusive deal with GeoEye.
Internet Giant’s deal with GeoEye will allow Google to use and embed exclusive GeoEye’s images in the web. The imageries will be used in both Google Maps and Google Earth. To serve this purpose a new satellite, GeoEye-1, is expected to be launched on 4th September. You can enjoy a countdown on the GeoEye’s homepage to keep an eye on the time left.
GeoEye-1 will be able to capture imagery with the size of 41 cm, but due to license constraints and legal issues, Google would be able to use the imagery with a resolution of 50 cm only.
According to Kate Hurowitz, Google spokeswoman, GeoEye-1 will produce a high-quality images as it rules the commercial marketplace to date, while other commercial satellite imagery offers a resolution of 60 cm only.
The GeoEye-1 satellite has the highest ground resolution colour imagery available in the commercial marketplace and will produce high-quality imagery with a very accurate geolocation. It is our goal to display high-resolution imagery for as much of the world as possible, and GeoEye-1 will help further that goal.
The rocket will be launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California and will orbit 423 miles above Earth. The imaging subsystem is built by ITT while the overall satellite is made up by General Dynamics.
You can also glimpse the traces of the deal as GeoEye-1 is carrying a Google logo with it. This really looks interesting and amazing. We hope that this new deal will help Google Maps and Earth to explore new mapping dimensions and world. It really seems promising and we are eagerly waiting to sight the first satellite imagery by GeoEye-1.
You can watch the Live Launching Video feed here.
(Image via CNET)
