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normiss

Aerial shots of drop zones?

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I'm looking for a killer aerial of drop zones...
http://www.keyhole.com (yes I suck at porting url's!) seems to have the best but require a subscription to drop the "Trial" watermark over the photo.
Does anyone have another good high-resolution source? Maybe a membership to an on-line aerial service?
Silly request...but I want my favorite view as my background on my PC!

:)

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I'm looking for a killer aerial of drop zones...
http://www.keyhole.com (yes I suck at porting url's!) seems to have the best but require a subscription to drop the "Trial" watermark over the photo.
Does anyone have another good high-resolution source? Maybe a membership to an on-line aerial service?
Silly request...but I want my favorite view as my background on my PC!


Here is a clicky www.keyhole.com
:)




Fire Safety Tip: Don't fry bacon while naked

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Try Terraserver.

I like Google maps better, but you are right that they don't offer enough detail in enough areas. For the areas you can't find on Google, try Terraserver. The light green areas offer pretty good coverage, and dark green areas offer even better detail.
www.WingsuitPhotos.com

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Google purchased Keyhole last year. The images on the google maps are derived from the same technology but the resolution and data coverage is different between the web product and the downloadable client (I think mainly the Airphoto USA images aren't on the web but the web's 15m image is better).

Typically the downloadable keyhole client has much better resolution, it also has 3D terrain information, the terrain 3D resolution varies independently from the images.

A great DZ to check out with imagery and 3D terain using the Keyhole client software is Skydive San Diego at Otay Lakes. This shows what can be done with the right data.

High resolution coverage is just a matter of luck, urban areas tend to have the high resolution data. The US is in at 15 m everywhere with higher resolution in many places.

Resolution and coverage will get better with time but high res good data is expensive and tends to get flown where there are customers for the data.

For source data of the quality in keyhole try here:

http://www.airphotousa.com/

But rural coverage won't be much better than Keyhole's stuff. They will sell you a print though if you do find your area, and they have a map showing coverage.

Other interesting sources:

http://www.spaceimaging.com/
http://www.digitalglobe.com/
http://www.orbimage.com/

The satellite providers tend to have higher resolution available in rural areas because they orbit instead of flying and buying an image chip for something the size of a DZ can be affordable depending on your application. Unlike the aerial sources they are limited to a useful resolution of about 1m with their current birds and can have cloud cover (depends on the product).

Another online tool & image source to help you find data you're looking for:

http://www.globexplorer.com/

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but I want my favorite view as my background on my PC!

:)


i did the same thing with my dz using google maps:$

here's one-- i googled it http://www.airportone.com/gaep/Airport%20CD/photogallery/po/Zephyrhills%20Aerial%20-%20March%202001.jpg
if your profile is incorrect, just ask someone on here that flies a camera wherever you jump... i'm sure they have one.
i didn't lose my mind, i sold it on ebay. .:need a container to fit 5'4", 110 lb. cypres ready & able to fit a 170 main (or slightly smaller):.[/ce

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Google only has 15m over zhills but the downloadable client had much better data, I can't upload a large attachment but here is a crop from the larger image.

This data is sourced from Airphoto USA they can sell you an image of the area if that's all you need or you can just download the keyhole client yourself.

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There are similarities with the keyhole and worldwind stuff but the products are not the same. Image quality is significantly affected by content and the NASA viewer tends to have Blue Marble (MODIS visible spectrum satellite composite) with Landsat-7 as their higher resolution insets, that limits the useful ground resolution to about 15m where they have the landsat coverage. This is probably not a technical limitation, it's just the data they're rendering with. The keyhole stuff has a 15m base image everywhere in the USA to which they add AirPhotoUSA data that's anywhere from 2m to 3 inch resolution (about 4ft & 2ft is typical). If you want to see something impressive check out the strip in Las Vegas or downtown San Diego in the keyhole viewer. The absolute best data in the keyhole stuff is just North of the VAB in Cape Canaveral rolling into the building, you can see individual tiles on the Shuttle and that data is about an inch in resolution (Sourced from a NASA image taken from the roof of the VAB).

It depends how close you want to look over your DZ, but if you want to recognize detailed features you'll need good resolution data.

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