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Language: en
This is the same location but with six
different satellite sources. All of them
are free and each one shows you
something that the others miss. If
you're doing any kind of verification,
investigation, or just want to
understand what's happening on the
ground somewhere in the world, you need
to know which tool to reach for and
when. Hi, I'm Ben and welcome back to my
channel on open-source investigations.
In this session, we're going to look at
the six best free satellite sources that
you can get your hands on. There's no
payw walls, no subscriptions, just the
tools so that you can get access to
satellite imagery, whether it's for your
investigations, for your research, or
just to have a little look at the world
around you. So, here's what we're going
to cover in this session. For those that
want to follow, all of the links are in
the description below. And while you're
down there, don't forget to like and
subscribe for more tutorials like this.
The first tool we're going to look at is
Google Earth Pro. It's what I use on a
daily basis, so of course I'd put it
here first. Google Earth Pro is the
go-to tool for historical satellite
imagery. There's two ways to use it. You
can use the desktop version, or you can
use the browser version. I'm going to
show you the desktop version, but the
browser version is practically the same.
Both have the tool that this platform is
so well known for, and it's right up
here. It's called the historical imagery
slider. It allows you to slide through
every image Google has updated on this
platform. And this is satellite imagery
from different providers such as Airbus
or Maxar and others. The tool is really
useful because you're able to go back
and see what a place looked like to
identify whether there's change, whether
there's been destruction and other
things like that. In other cities, like
in London here, you can go back as far
as 1945 and look at World War II related
aerial imagery. A quick tip for when
you're looking at a location such as
this one in Sedan's cartoons is making
sure that you don't just rely on one
satellite image, but you always have a
look back in time to see when things
might have changed. For example, on this
satellite image, we've got a lot of
destroyed planes and buildings. But if
we go back in time, we can identify when
they weren't destroyed, and it gives us
an indication as to when those events
might have happened to cause that change
on the ground. Now, Google Earth is
brilliant for that historical context.
But what if you want to see beyond
visible light? Well, that's where a
platform like Capernicus comes in. The
second tool is the Capernacus browser,
and I use this regularly. Previously,
the go-to for this would have been
Sentinel Hub, which I've mentioned in
previous tutorials. But now, the free
sourcing for this imagery is with
Capernacus. Capernicus browser is the
European Space Agency's gift to the
world. Free access to Sentinel satellite
imagery and a couple of other data
providers. Now, here's what makes this
different from Google Earth. You're not
just looking at pretty pictures. You can
change how the data is visualized using
this left panel of filters and even
custom filters once you get a little bit
more experienced in utilizing these. For
example, if we have a look at these
preset bands, I've got true color
currently turned on. It's kind of
similar to how we're seeing those images
on Google Earth there. But if I change
it to S SWIR, which is shortwave
infrared, and suddenly we can see
through mist and haze, and it's great
for picking up fires and burn scars,
moisture, droughts, and floods. We could
even use NDVI to see vegetation health.
Again, bright plants are green, stressed
or dead vegetation shows up as red or
brown. I also really like using false
color. It helps me identify signs of
conflict, such as destruction or burned
areas. And in this case, what we're
looking at is red or bright red being
vegetation, but this kind of tan or gray
being either cleared areas or areas with
lack of vegetation or urban development.
And it's not only Sentinel 2 imagery
that we can get our hands on. We can
also look at things like Sentinel 1
imagery. And Sentinel 1 imagery is
actually radar imagery. And it allows us
to look at a certain area and pierce
cloud cover. And again, we have
different filters. To understand some of
those filters, all you need to do is
click on the down arrow, and it explains
a little bit about the usefulness of
those filters and what they might be
helpful for. To see some of those
filters used as a case study, a really
good example is to have a look at events
in the news such as wildfires or
bushfires. And we have a few in
Australia in January 2026. And scrolling
through this satellite run here, I can
already see something down the bottom
right which indicates quite a large fire
or at least something that looks like a
fire. Here's how we view it on natural
or or the the true color imagery. And we
can see all of those smoke plumes coming
through there. In the true color
section, we had this cloud cover really
obscuring where there might be fire on
the on this front line of the burning
here. And then if we use that SWIR one,
we can really pierce through some of
that cloud cover to see the the fire
going on there. And then also that false
color one, which just helps us identify
burned areas and really highlights that
burned area for us a little bit better.
And that's just a great practical case
study on how to use this platform. Now,
the better thing about Capernicus is
that it does update every few days. And
you can see that on the calendar here of
available satellite shots.
But what about highresolution historical
comparison imagery? Well, that's where
we have something like Ezre's world
imagery way back. And this is basically
historical base maps where we can view
past highresolution imagery. You can see
the resolution on this imagery is
actually pretty good. in order to get
one of these dates. It says that we're
looking at January 11 of 2023. If I
click on the image itself, it'll
actually bring up the accurate date
which says that the image was captured
on March 21, 2020
as shown in the 2023 version. So, always
make sure that you click on this to get
the actual accurate image. Seeing this
in practice, we can have a look at the
swipe feature, which is this little tab
on the left over here. I'm having a look
at the Kabul air base in Afghanistan and
I'm able to view imagery from 2025. So
again, we'll click on here image
captured March 8, 2025 and an image on
the left captured on February 14, 2024.
So this is an interesting one to look at
because this is in Afghanistan after
coalition forces have withdrawn. And we
can see the movement of aerial assets on
the air base in Kabul there. And this is
a really useful feature because it's
such a high resolution imagery there
that we're able to really get down into
the details of specific aerial assets
and also buildings that might have
popped up. So, we can see in 2024
imagery, there was no building on this
road right here. But then if we scroll
over to 2025, there appears to be a new
building built over the road adjoining
this construction here. And this is why
I love using this swipe imagery because
it allows you to just do a very, very
quick comparison and see some of the
things that have changed around here.
This has an archive going back to 2014
and updates quite regularly. So, we're
able to see imagery here from 2025. Some
other locations obviously a little bit
older. So, always make sure that you
click on the actual imagery and read the
imagery captured date because this one
might say 2025 in June, but actually the
image was captured on March 2025, but
shown as the base map on June 2025. Now,
this is really useful for change
detection, but sometimes you just need
the clearest, most recent high-res
imagery available. The fourth tool is
the ArcGIS Map Viewer. Again, another
relatively unheard of tool, but with a
lot of cool features. Argis map viewer
is Ezre's free web-based mapping tool
and it gives you direct access to some
of the best highresolution satellite
base maps available anywhere as well as
a huge range of other geospatial data
packages and imagery layers all
available for free online. When you
first glimpse at the ARJS map viewer,
there's not really too much to look at.
It looks like a pretty plain map. So,
you've got to add layers and you do that
by clicking add layer. And you can have
a look at both living atlas as well as
ArcGIS online. If you scroll through
this, you can see that there is a lot of
different data available. What I'm going
to do is just quickly type in world. And
we want the world imagery layer. So this
is the one that we're going to load up.
I'll click add. And now we have that in
our layers. So I can search for a
location. Say for example, I want to go
to Sebastapool. By going to this
location, it allows me to look at some
interesting sites. And here's where you
can see the real depth of this imagery.
We're having a look at a Russian
defensive position in Crimea in
Sevastapool. We can see pretty good
highresolution imagery of Russian
defense sites at this air base here, as
well as some of the aerial assets that
might be parked there. Again, if we
wanted more details on this, we can see
that this is from the 14th of June,
2025. It's a 30 cm capture. It's by
Vantor, previously known as Maxa. I
highly recommend you look at the layers.
So, you click on add and you go browse
layers and you can have a look at both
Living Atlas and ARJS online. And
there's so much data, different kinds of
satellite imagery, different geospatial
data sets and everything like that. One
that I recently found was a really cool
data set of New Zealand imagery. If I
click add and then I go to a place like
Oakland, this is actually aerial imagery
of New Zealand in its entirety. And you
can start to see how valuable this kind
of imagery is. It's not just normal
satellite imagery. This is aerial
imagery. gives us the option to zoom in
and really view people at an extremely
close level where we're able to see uh
individual figures, even identifying the
color of clothing that some people are
wearing. While the imagery is super
clear, it's not incredibly new. Uh so
it's from 2017. It's aerial imagery at
008 m, which is pretty incredible. Okay,
so two other tools to look at. The fifth
tool is Apple Maps. It's nice for
differentiation, but as far as satellite
imagery goes, it's not as useful as the
others, unless you're using it for
street view, but that's not covered in
this session. Apple Maps does fly under
the radar, though. Their satellite layer
is often quite different to Google's.
For those of you that are on a Mac, I
recommend rather than just using the web
browser for Apple Maps, you can actually
use the app, which has an incredible 3D
layer. Also some really cool texturing,
shadow positioning on specific
buildings. So you can see, for example,
this one with the new builds that have
popped up there as well as the
construction site, just the level of
detail that's been applied to some of
these maps. But again, this is only
available for certain cities, certain
countries. So very sparse in its
coverage. But if you are covering areas
like this, it's always worth just
checking it out to see if they have that
decent coverage that you're looking for
to help you with, for example,
geoloccation mapping or understanding
perhaps what level of apartment
something might be filmed from or
photographed from and and things like
that. And finally, one more angle. The
sixth one that we're going to look at is
Bing Maps. Bing Maps has two features
worth knowing. It's got the satellite
view and then it's got spectacular
aerial imagery. The satellite view is
quite normal. It covers most areas. It's
really useful to think about using if
you ever need an independent angle, but
then it's also got an amazing aerial
view function. And you can see a really
good example of that aerial imagery at
this US Navy base in Norfolk here where
we can see an incredible amount of
detail just on the top of this aircraft
carrier. We've got this one as well.
Again, incredible detail in comparison
to what you would see on a satellite
image, just showing the worth of aerial
imagery and just how useful it is when
you can get your hands on it. So, I've
gone through a lot, but how do you
decide what tool to use and when to use
it? Well, here's a little framework I've
drawn up. Basically, historical imagery,
if you want to go back in time and get
some really good historical context, is
with Google Earth Pro. If you want to
see multisspectral or see through clouds
and have a bit of a play around with the
imagery but also view regular days but
at a more macro level I would use
capernicus browser. If you want to do
any change detection or swipe comparison
way back is useful there. For the recent
highest resolution view, Ezri World
imagery, that world map viewer is great,
but also don't forget the extra data
that's available there if you're looking
at more macro reporting or a little bit
more interesting research there. For an
alternative perspective, always check
out Apple Maps. And for aerial views,
don't forget Bing Maps as well. In
reality, you'll often use two or three
of these together. So for example,
Google Earth for the historical context,
but then Capernicus for the spectral
analysis and way back for that real
indication of change through the swiping
just to make sure you're looking at the
right thing and not getting that
confirmation bias. If you found this
session useful, don't forget to head
down and click the like and subscribe
button so that you can stay up to date
with any other tutorials that come out,
but also some of the investigations
where I actually use these tools in
practical bits of research. And don't
forget in the description below, you'll
find all of the links and a little bit
of cheat sheet with tips and tricks
along the way. Thank you so much for
watching. I'll see you in the next
session.
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