Google map satellite view free#

Capturing Our Changing PlanetĪ vast network of observation satellites equipped with high-resolution cameras and sensors feed into popular applications. This article explores how satellites enable services like Google Maps to bring our world closer. In “mapa satelital” mode, satellite images reveal stunning perspectives of geological forms, cityscapes, weather patterns, and more. Open Google Maps, Apple Maps, or other mapping apps and switch to satellite view for a worldwide bird’s-eye glimpse. Instead, over a thousand specialized Earth observation satellites are responsible for the rich satellite map imagery and “live” views we access today. While SpaceX’s Starlink satellites are known for their role in providing global high-speed internet, they don’t capture Earth images. See more of Odell’s work here.Experience Our Dynamic Planet Through Satellite Mapping 2 to 30 at Breeze Block Gallery in Portland, Ore. A solo exhibition of her work will be on view from Aug. Jenny Odell is a San Francisco based artist. This time around, the focus is our collective preoccupation with stuff both tangible and not: movies, cell phones, alcohol, marriage counseling and weight loss are just a few of the topics to fall within Odell’s examination. Odell’s most recent project, Signs of Life, which she began this year, expands on her previous projects and explores life from Google’s satellite view. Final square-shaped images of 144 empty parking lots, or every basketball court in Manhattan, tell a story of our world from a perspective unusual for the human eye. I’m interested in the strangeness of a particular site or location.” After making her selections, she makes screen grabs of the items and then brings the files into PhotoShop to cut them out of their surroundings.

“This work is about a greater idea of space.

Google map satellite view free#

“By working with the map labels turned off, I’m free to move about and explore freely,” says Odell. The photographer is often unaware of ‘where’ she is on the map, but then again, it’s not really important to her. Her project Satellite Collections, created from 2009-2011, uses the satellite view on Google Maps to find objects as diverse as airplanes, basketball courts and even water slides from places all over the world, which Odell then compiles into pictures-a selection of which is on view at Breeze Block Gallery in Portland, Ore. Interested in the complexities of technology-its progress and efficiency models, alongside the hiccups and mistakes inherent in web applications like Google Maps-Odell found inspiration in the two seemingly divergent paths. in photography at the San Francisco Art Institute. After studying English in undergrad, Odell went on to receive her M.F.A. Odell grew up in the Bay Area, and not unlike many in the area, was born to parents in the tech industry. But for artist Jenny Odell, Google Maps is a tool to see, cut up and re-imagine her world in a new, photographic way. For the average person, Google Maps is a website used to locate an address on a map, find directions from one place to another and see what areas around the world look like from a bird’s eye perspective.