Google's satellite imagery has been a cause of great delight and privacy worries for many. For every person that's addicted to seeking out an aerial view of their childhood home on Google Earth, there's another worried citizen trying to get the search giant to obscure their image on StreetView. Now, Google will be able to update its satellite mapping features using super high resolution images from GeoEye-1 - the world's highest resolution, commercial Earth-imaging satellite.
GeoEye-1 is expected to launch on Thursday September 4, and will move at a speed of four and a half miles per second. Its image capturing capabilities are impressive; orbiting 423 miles above Earth, the satellite will be able to gather imagery with details of a size as small as 41 centimetres. However, Google is only permitted to use data with a resolution of 50 centimetres, due to licensing issues with the US government.
According to the company, the satellite can capture detailed imagery the size of New Mexico in just one day. Effectively, this means that GeoEye-1 could take new satellite images of the entirety of the USA in just 30 days.
Kate Hurowitz, a spokesperson for Google, stated: "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 acute geolocation.
"It is our goal to display high-resolution imagery for as much of the world as possible, and GeoEye-1 will help further than goal."
In addition to the vast improvements that the agreement will bring Google Earth and Google Maps users, Google has also scored a branding coup by getting its logo on the side of the rocket that will launch the satellite. No details have yet been revealed over the sum paid by Google for use of the images, but GeoEye's shares closed 2.4 per cent higher, at $23.18, after the announcement was made.
It is expected that the new images will be made available around mid-October. As well as being used to update Google's mapping applications, the images will be utilised by the US government in the fields of national defence and intelligence, as well as capturing data for environmental monitoring and natural disaster management.
