High Resolution Satellite Imagery VS Aerial Imagery

The application of visual technology like satellite and aerial imagery continues to evolve and improve – which is great news for those in real estate, town planners, valuer and other industry professionals.

In fact, the geospatial visual data provided by high resolution satellite and aerial imagery in Australia can offer more robust and useful insights, significantly improve your workflows, and, in many cases, save you considerable time in your project research and planning.

What is Satellite Imagery?

As the name implies, satellite imagery is a collection of visual data generated via imaging sensors in special purpose satellites (or very high-flying crafts).

It is used to cover a wide, large-scale area of the physical environment (for example: air, water, land, vegetation).

In essence, satellite imagery measures, identifies and tracks human activity to the land spectrally.

This kind of imagery not only showcases what is currently happening in that location, but can also reveal environmental impact and changes over time – so you can use the imagery to analyse historical changes too.

What is Aerial Imagery?

Aerial imagery is a topographical mapping tool that shows places, objects (i.e., properties) and features of particular geographical areas.

The images are taken from an aircraft/airborne platform (like a drone) for broad, yet detailed coverage.

It has become indispensable for urban planning, land and property development use (and more) thanks to the vital information collected and simply represented in a central set of images.

Main Benefits of Satellite and Aerial Imagery

Complete the picture:

Both satellite and aerial imagery provide a more complete “full picture” of a specific area that can be difficult to ascertain from the ground alone. Often this reveals details otherwise unseen by a “naked eye” inspections of the area.

Multiple angles:

For aerial imagery, key angles include classic vertical photographs (direct, overhead), low oblique (tilted at least 3 degrees for close-up shots) and high oblique (to cover larger, wider views of features of landmarks).

For satellite imagery, this includes visible, infrared and water vapour.

Both (especially when combined together) offer a multifaceted view of a particular area for a better understanding of it.

Quality and range:

Both are high resolution, time and cost-efficient ways to cover geographical areas and have wide application.

Updated & relevant:

Access up-to-date geospatial data for enhanced, relevant industry insights.

Wide application:

For example, satellite and aerial imagery are helpful for use in disaster management or development (to understand what has changed and how).

Aerial imagery can also be utilised for less time-consuming and more accessible, remote asset monitoring and infrastructure management.

Main Differences Between Satellite Imagery & Aerial Imagery

Near or Far:

Satellite imagery depicts landscapes from further afar, whereas aerial imagery is taken at a lower altitude and offers a greater level of detail (that more closely resembles traditional landscape imagery from elevated, yet closer heights).

Accuracy & Detail:

Satellite imagery offers a wider distance and range, but this is at the expense of the greater detail that an aerial image provides.

Different Uses:

Aerial imagery tends to be more favoured for localised, commercial applications (think real estate, urban planning and similar), whereas satellite imagery is ideal for larger scale projects requiring coverage of very wide areas.

Satellite or Aerial: Which is Better for Real Estate Professionals?

Despite the variances outlined above, both satellite and aerial imagery are highly complementary geospatial tools.

High resolution satellite imagery in Australia is often supplemented with aerial photography for a more complete, aligned dataset.

An integrated database like Landchecker enables you to view and analyse the world from above and zoom-in where needed for closer detail.

Landchecker combines the highest-resolution aerial imagery (6x higher than the best satellite imagery) with rich property data. The result is an all-in-one go-to tool for quick, yet in-depth comparisons (past and present visuals) from the ease of your desktop.

All aerial imagery on the site is updated several times a year and geo-referenced, so it can be used in conjunction with other spatial data (like satellite imagery) to understand wider attributes of a location.

It includes nationwide imagery across metro and regional areas (yes, that includes an aerial view of every property in Australia!).

It is ideal for use in fast site assessments, comprehensive planning information, prospecting, sales data and more.

Interested in taking advantage of this function?

These features are available as part of an affordable Landchecker Professional plan (monthly or annual).

All you need to do is click on high-res aerial imagery option in Map Type, choose your timeline and select additional tools (for example, to measure shapes, distance, etc.).

From here you can choose an area you want to export in high resolution and save as the file type you need.

Click here to learn more!