How detailed can satellite imagery be? Can it make out the license plate on a car?
98059
The short answer is: No one really knows, since the details are classified. Also, the current satellite performance is probably not as good as what it CAN be. \n\nI think that comparing what astronomers are able to do with what the best satellites are able to do can be a bit misleading. \n\n1. The space telescope does not have to look through the air, with the water vapor and turbulence and dust. The space telescope has only the very outer reaches of the atmosphere to look through. \n\n2. The space telescope and ground-based astronomers do not have at their disposal anywhere near the resources that governmental organizations do. For example, the space telescope was not even calibrated, because there was so little money! It was only because of heroic efforts and a few minor miracles that the space telescope was brought into focus. The space telescope is basically a toy, and has barely been able to get funded for the last few years, and might be soon decommissioned. \n\n3. Astronomers just do not have the interest, the background, the training, the knowledge, or the resources to command the type of bleeding-edge technology that governments do. Astronomers for the most part are mired in phenomenology, and do not worry much about the details of pedestrian things like optics. Optics is, in general, disparaged by astronomers and left to the "engineers" and other lesser beings like mathematicians, physicists, statisticians, computer scientists, etc. Basically, astronomers hurt themselves with their attitudes and their culture. \n\n4. No responsible government is going to announce what they are capable of seeing with their satellites. All of this material is very closely held at best, and most likely highly classified. \n\n5. It is well known (or at least often reported in the newspapers, so it might not be correct) that spy satellites are so big and so heavy because they bring a large reserve of fuel with them so that they can be lowered and raised as needed to see various features and details. Apparently, they do not always orbit at the same altitude. \n\n6. It is quite possible to combine imagery from platforms such as multiple satellites, planes, high altitude balloons, etc. to improve resolution considerably. It is hard to know the extent to which this is done, or if it is done, because of course the area is shrouded in secrecy, so we do not know. But the question was, how detailed CAN it be? Well you COULD use multiple sensors on multiple platforms, unlike the Hubble telescope (in fact, multiple sensors on the ground are able to beat Hubble now). \n \n7. As a gross upper bound on resolution limits, look at the mutually agreed upon limits on size of warheads etc by the Russians/FSU/USSR and the USA, for example (typically, the silo doors would reportedly be opened to permit treaty inspections, according to newspaper accounts anyway). These specifications in the treaties imply MUCH higher resolution than the some of the numbers given here by others. And remember, these are the mutually agreed-upon resolutions by two very suspicious adversaries, who do not want to give anything away. Both have to be able to achieve these resolutions, and probably are capable of far better resolution. \n\n8. Having looked at Dawe's limit, and knowing a bit about resolution, I can tell you that it is not particularly useful as an indicator of achievable resolution. How close we are able to come to ultimate resolutions depends on how many resources we are willing to spend, and again since it is classified, it is difficult to know.\n\nTherefore, to answer the question how detailed can satellite imagery be? The answer is, VERY. How detailed is it? We do not know, since it is classified.
219534
google earth can give you sattelite images but it is not live.
366719
yes it is true.\nthe webstite is called www.googleearth.com.\nyou can sign up for a service with them so that they will\ntake photos of your house using a satellite ever 0.01 seconds for security purposes.\nIf not u can still see your house on that website for free but i just may not be an accurate picture.\nHopes this helps!
337304
A satellite transmits signals to the earth.it tracks the object by moving with the same speed as that of the car
46614
Haha...that lazy sunday video is freakin' awesome!\n\nI prefer Google Maps...you can not only get the view of the roads, but a view of the satellite also. It's just awesome!
578367
google maps! maps.google.com Satellite view too!
172629
Yes - Google Earth.  It is awesome!  It is amazing the things you can see from the satellite.  Most of the photos can be 1 to 3 years old, but they are updating constantly.  I was stuck on it for an hour the first time.  Try Disneyland!
136261
You can use any of these services to see a sattelite view of your home (if it's covered)\n\nhttp://www.maps.google.com .. type in your address and click on sattelite\nGoogle Earth  http://earth.google.com/  .. you can see sattelite pictures from all over the world with a really cool interface \n\nYou can also try microsoft's virtual earth http://local.live.com/ click on areal to see sattelite pics
43435
Terraserver.\n\nIt does not require you to download software. The maximum resolution of satellite images is 1 meter per pixel.\n\nPretty cool.....found one of my previous homes....and although most shots are in black and white....mine was in color!\n\n:)\nPeace!
9430
There may be satellite photos available.
943816
i want to make a system that gets mounter to the passenger front bumber of my car, so when im stuck in traffic and some _hole feel he deserves to drive in the emergency lane, the laser will burst a hole in his tire, and give him a reason to be in the emergency lane.  Some issues with this system is the timing of when to fire the laser, how much power the laser would be.  You dont want to accidentally fire at the wrong thing, so these issues must be addressed first.  I think thats pretty innovative.\n\nwhilst working on my M.E. senior design project, my sponsor (an artist) wanted to make a dynamic hologram depicting a full COLOR rainbow..  Yeah, I know...  It made for great jokes the entire year.
798625
Not at all. A license plate is visible to the entire population (providing it is displayed as it should be). There is no civil or criminal violation for someone taking a picture of something that is plainly visible to the general public and posting it.
734069
The satellite images on Google earth are not live.\nThey are static (taken months, usually years, ago)
155319
Certainly, the vehicle can be timed with such photo-technology.  However, the question is, can such evidence be used in court and that has many nuences.  \n\nThis has been addressed by a friend of mind in California and his case he won.  He has a blog which addresses this type of situation as well as other legal issues.  The address is in the source links:
280163
NASA has a lot of experience with this kind of thing.  It generally goes by 'remote sensing'.  In order to get started, you really just have to look at some satellite photos.  The real skill is being able to identify what you're seeing.  Remote sensing comes in a number of types.  You can have photographs from airplanes that are in color, or you can have satellite photos.  Sometimes, you may even get photos in infrared.  Infrared photos are especially useful for studying vegetation and urban development.  See the link below for more info.
993726
I don't know of anything commercially available, but I would be willing to bet that the military has something akin to this, perhaps for aircraft silhouette recognition by visual radar, as an I-F-F device.
923812
Not unless you're really, really lucky. Take a look at Google Earth, for example. Zoom in close on a place that has the highest-res photography available (like London) and you'll see that something the size of a human being would be right at the edge of visibility. So even if you were lucky enough to be snapped from space, nobody could tell if it was you or someone else.