Interactive Satellite Map Applications
Today's technology makes interactive satellite map applications freely available. There are currently a number of widely distributed programs on the market, ranging from the famous Google Earth, to the NASA sponsored WorldWind, to shareware programs and websites that offer you the ability to interact with satellite images and view the world the way a GIS professional would.
Google Earth was originally made by an independent company, Keyhole, Inc. and known as "Earth Viewer." Google acquired this company in 2004 and would later release the program for consumer use for free. As freeware, updates to the program are also free and there are no limits to how you can use to program, although a "Plus" version with GPS integration is offered for a $20 annual fee and a commercial "Pro" edition is available for a $400 annual fee. Currently upgrades are planned for the "Pro" version which will substantially raise the annual fee. Google Earth is available for many operating systems including Linux and FreeBSD in addition to Windows and Mac OS X. Google Earth now features a "Sky" view which allows you to outer space in the same interactive program used for Google Earth.
In addition to Google Earth, you also have the open source NASA sponsored program known as WorldWind. WorldWind offers both an interactive satellite map function in the style of Google Earth and extraterrestrial models, such as the Moon and Jupiter. WorldWind incorporates aerial data from Microsoft's Virtual Earth platform. As open source software, WorldWind is free software. WorldWind is currently only available for MS Windows, although future platform independent versions based on Java are planned.
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If you are not looking for a desktop application, you can use a web based interactive satellite map application. Google also offers its satellite imagery in their Google Maps service online. Simply click the "Satellite" tab. You can also check out TerraServer-USA, offered for free by Microsoft. TerraServer uses public domain aerial and satellite imagery. Microsoft Virtual Earth has also been integrated into Microsoft's Live Search site, in a fashion akin to Google Map's implementation. Google Earth was also recently released as a browser plug-in, thus bridging the divide between desktop based interactive satellite map applications and web based ones. These are only the free Interactive Satellite Map Services, if they do not accomplish all of your goals; there are a number of shareware programs besides Google Earth Plus and Pro which offer enhanced functionality as well.
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