OSINT At Home #9 – Top 4 Free Satellite Imagery Sources

This tutorial is part 9 of the OSINT At Home series. It covers a common question that I get asked a lot, which is where I am getting my satellite imagery from. So I’ve made this tutorial on my four favourite satellite imagery sources and tools – and they’re all free.

This tutorial may suit you if you are keen to learn a little bit more about how and where to find satellite imagery for free. We all know commercial imagery can be expensive, so getting it for free is quite helpful.

If you are keen on learning more about geospatial intelligence (GEOINT), GIS, open source intelligence (OSINT), verification, geolocation or being able to visualise findings in research, journalism or movie making with satellite imagery, then you might find this tutorial helpful.

For those that don’t want to watch the whole video, below I have broken this tutorial down into chapters:

The OSINT At Home series is useful for those looking to find digital breadcrumbs and pick up some methods of open source intelligence (OSINT), digital investigations and good old plain research. No matter who you are, or where you are in the world, you can follow these tutorials from home with publicly available information to answer questions such as who, what, where and when.

FREE SATELLITE IMAGERY SOURCES

MORE RESOURCES
15 Free Satellite Imagery Data Sources:

SUPPORT ME:

MY SETUP:

CREDITS FOR THIS TUTORIAL
Imagery: Google Earth/Landsat Copernicus
Microsoft Maps, ESRI Imagery

Music Intro: World’s Fair – God Mode

[wellcraft]

Satellite imagery is - just like YouTube - a black hole. It can be insanely interesting to retrace old steps taken, or to discover new areas of interest. Mother earth never ceases to amaze and inspire. Thanks for the links (only used GE in the past).

[sharg]

The reason that some sources are very high in detail but don't update often is that the high definition images doesn't comes from satellites but from aerial photography (and some states don't allow those nor can they fly over war zones etc).

Thanks for the tips about these sites, I only knew of GE of these!

[DonnyDarko]

Hi Ben! Thanks for providing these sources. I was struggling to geolocate a place due to old satellite imagery but now because of zoom earth I was able to locate the place. It's been a week since I started focusing on OSINT primarily on geolocating places and because of your guides, articles, blogs and videos I've learnt a whole lot of new things. Thank you very much! Keep up the good work.

[SlinkyD]

I used Google Earth desktop version to verify some things in an old book from the late 1400s. Now I can pick up the search with better tools and run my own map server.
Its amazimg that place names haven't changed in centuries in North America.
That old typeset is the hardest part to get through. Luckily it was translated.

Thanks for the info my guy.

[xae]

You are a great asset for OSINT community.

[lewisdye]

Immobilized at home (USA), stumbled on your channel, most fun on screen since 2010! Thanks for doing all this work, definitely beneficial for planetary netizens.

[asiri]

Thank you Ben for this series of OSINT tutorials. Very informative and helpful 👍

[shockingguy]

Wow just stumbled on your channel, thank you YouTube algorithm, just shared you with a whole bunch of people who already do OSINT And a bunch of journalists, now I have to watch this whole series ha ha, a new rabbit hole

[MrSidney]

Honestly, I may never or rarely ever use these but it's nice to know they're available.

[johanbester]

We use Sentinel for processing ndvi and ndmi values for agriculture...love your presentation.

[MarioRuscovici]

I like the presentation style, relaxed yet informative. I would like to see a video on each source alone, especially on how to use all of the features on Google Earth. Thank you!

[williampfaffjr]

Thank you....this has opened a whole new world for

[dinodasbunce]

I would love it if one of these platforms incorporated LIDAR data. As an archaeologist I would find that most interesting.

[OpenmindedSourceClosedBeta]

Thank you very much. this will save me a ton of my time researching different map based topics (and at the same time, will consume it back because of my curiosity).

[JCO]

Excellent, I've saved this. I'm a caver in Jamaica, use Google Earth often to help locate lost sites, and didn't even know about the other three. Many thanks.

[zestoslife]

This has been really helpful have a local mining company is is being rather naughty and this has been brilliant for attempting to show their behaviors. Since their activity is all behind hills etc and away from the public eye.

[Bendobrown]

UPDATE: For the archive tool from #4 - the date that you see on the screen is the date that it was published in the imagery basemap. If you 'click' on the actual satellite image you will get more details as to the capture date.

[springplums]

Gotta say that the upbeat tone during the 'village dissapears' part felt eerie.

[mattckwilliams]

Already used all these tools to document fighting in Darfur. Absolutely amazing. Thank you Ben

[mcc]

Thanks Ben, opens up so much more of the world to us.