March 2024

According to new estimates, more than 6,000 satellites orbit the Earth, including communication, navigation and earth observation satellites. The latter now provide detailed images of the Earth and most of this data is available to the public. And it’s exactly this feature that adds significant value to our analyses for real estate and infrastructure projects. 

When it comes to examining satellite or aerial views, we at Content5 like to use Google Earth Pro’s virtual globe – it's an upgraded version of Google Earth. Beyond the known 3D city views and measuring distances, areas and heights, the Pro edition offers some extra functions tailored to professional users.

One perk of Google Earth Pro is the ability to check out historical maps. You can access satellite or aerial images of a map at various points in time and put them side by side. This clever feature lets us dive into the spatial surroundings and history of a project, adding a whole new layer to our analysis.

Another extra feature we make the most of at Content5 is the import and export of geoinformation system data in the Pro version. This allows us to blend data points from external sources with current or even historical aerial images.

In conclusion, we've found that Google Earth Pro is an essential tool for evaluating aerial and satellite images, thanks to its myriad of options and data accessibility. Contrary to what the name might suggest, Google has been offering the Pro version as a free desktop application for several years now.