OSINT At Home #7 – How to create a satellite image time lapse

This tutorial is part 7 of the OSINT At Home series. It covers how to make a satellite image time lapse.

Satellite imagery plays a core role in the verification, analysis and investigation of information for the purposes of research. One of the lead factors with satellite imagery is the ability to compare different dates to see when something was at a given location, and when it wasn’t, or, in some of the examples, when new buildings appear on satellite imagery, watching vessels move, or identifying solar panels and their movement through satellite imagery.

Using the satellite imagery time lapse is a great way to identify change on the ground, and through mastering this skill, it will inevitably help any of those looking to verify incidents that happened on the ground, verify footage seen on social media, or claims in the news. It can also help with research and investigations in other fields, such as using satellite imagery in environmental journalism to identify deforestation, business journalism to identify mining growth, or research on urban sprawl and development by using the satellite imagery to indicate spread of urban areas over time.

While this tutorial only covers an introductory use of Sentinel Hub's time lapse tool, it is recommended that further research be done on specific use cases to help you in your research.

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.

TOOLS

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MORE RESOURCES

MY SETUP:

CREDITS FOR THIS TUTORIAL
Satellite imagery: Copernicus Sentinel & Landsat data source acquired through the Sentinel Hub
Music Intro: World’s Fair – God Mode

[qmoonwalker]

Really cool feature. Going to try and do a Timelapse of my house and neighborhood in LA. Thank you!

[Hominina]

Thank you so much for your videos! I absolutely loved this one. It's amazing the variety of free software around that can be used for research.
I already spent way too long on sentinel-hub checking for changes all over the world, from deforestation due to cocoa mass production, to how a local estuary changes throughout the seasons/years. I even peaked at the Suez canal to see where exactly the Evergreen ship got stuck and made a little gif of that timeline.
Thank you again, I'll keep on watching your videos (and liking them all!) and hopefully I can gain enough skills to one day help out humanitarian charities.

[jonoheath]

Thank you so much for doing all these videos they have all been so great

[jeremymichel]

Thank you for sharing your knowledge ! I'm amazed by your playlist OSINT At Home. Keep it up !

[kiensamac]

Thank you so much, it is a very inspiring tutorial series!!

[Saadzaidi]

Great video. I tried to do one for Boston Logan Airport, but the display is really blurry (I cannot see the terminals or runway clearly) and starts from 2016. I tried searching Landsat and other satellites, but all of their results were even worse. Can I fix it?

[TomCoutfit]

Quick question (this is a great series by the way!). Can I mix satellite providers into 1 timestream? So if Landsat has an image that Sentinel doesn't, is there a way to include these to make a more continuous time lapse? Thanks

[mpnunan]

I'm loving these videos! Keep them coming! (Please!)

[jcjensenllc]

Fascinating and amazing. I did not know this tech is available.

[YYZFLIX]

great Video ben, I don't know why my resolution on Sentinel Hub EO is very low, the place that I want to make a timelapse is very clear on google earth but on sentinel is very low res.

[darylwallace]

Hang on - isn't there an app for this now? Awesome vid - 3rd time watching.

[marc-alexandrelaroche]

Wow thank you so much, this is so cool

[bonsai]

When I play the animation/gif in the browser it is very low quality. Like 240p or below. Any recommendations on how to increase photo quality without zooming out?

[shawnmendrek]

3:29 it went from earth to what looks like mars.

[jessasto]

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2He was with God in the beginning. 3Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. (John 1:1-3)

[yolamontalvan]

Your voice sounds like computer generated sound.