Latest 24 Hours and Global Archive - Downloadable Imagery True Color(Global) shows land, water, and clouds as they would appear to our eye from space, captured each day by the NOAA-20 polar-orbiting satellite.This imagery is updated every 15 minutes. Water Vapor(Western Hemisphere) shows the concentration and location of water vapor in the atmosphere, captured by GOES East.Infrared(Western Hemisphere) shows heat radiating off of clouds and the surface of the Earth, captured by GOES East.GeoColor(Western Hemisphere) shows visible satellite imagery as the human eye would see Earth from space, captured by the GOES East (GOES-16) satellite.Use the 3D Earth Scene to take a trip around the globe or zoom in to find your neighborhood! Four different datasets help you view Earth from different perspectives:

He’s worked at Google for over 14 years and he gave me an aerial view (pun intended) of how satellite imagery works.At the click of a button, you’ll be able to see the latest weather patterns around the globe, including high-resolution cloud features and storm imagery, just as NOAA satellites see them from space. To answer these questions, I reached out to our satellite imagery techspert, Matt Manolides.

But how does satellite imagery actually work? How often are images updated? What are some of the biggest challenges to bringing satellite imagery to more than 1 billion users? Capturing the world from above is a huge undertaking, matching millions of images to precise locations.

Today, satellite imagery is one of the most popular features on Google Maps. For most of human history, it was impossible to even imagine what Earth looked like from above, and only in the past century have we been able to capture it. It’s thrilling to watch cars move, see skyscrapers cast shadows on the street or check out the reflection of the sun in a body of water. (And I can’t wait to start flying again… or at least get out of my apartment.) Not because I’m annoyed by the beverage cart hitting my elbows (though I am), or because I like to blankly stare out at the endless sky (which I do), but because I enjoy looking down at the streets, buildings and skyline of my destination as we land. When flying, I am firmly a window seat person.

Past satellite images of my house