I had looked into better resolution satellite imagery before and put it in the hard basket.
Hard on the wallet in particular for something Sentinel EO gives a reasonable hint as to what is changing at exploration sites.
When you think about the cost of developing a satellite, putting it into orbit and processing huge data it is not surprising high quality images are not going to be free.
This website goes into many of the factors involved in satellite imagery. This site does have products to sell but the information provided should be useful.
Costing: resolution/area required seem to be the main factors.
Working out what you are paying for is the stage I am at and finding it difficult to decide before opening the wallet.
Extract from that site:
How does satellite imagery pricing work?
There are two types to consider when budgeting for satellite data: free or commercial data sources.
As shown in the chart below, there tends to be an inverse relationship between the spatial resolution of imagery and the cost.
Let’s look at both free and commercial satellite imagery:
A chart depicting the relationship between spatial resolution and price of mainly commercial satellite imagery, with a couple examples of free data sources (e.g, Sentinel-2, Landsat 7/8). Prices were taken as averages from several resellers and do not account for discount pricing or marketplaces like UP42 with more flexible pricing options. Minimum area price is calculated from taking the minimum area size and multiplying by the price per sq km for a given data source.Source
Pricing depends on the data source
Free data sources
There are many types of free data sources available, primarily from governments or research institutions, but also distributed on many commercial platforms.
These data sources come at lower resolutions and cannot be tasked.
However, free data sources offer significant advantages like more regular revisits, increasing the number of observations made of the same point on Earth.
Additionally, because of their broader availability and use, occasionally free data sources have more research-backed applications.
Some free data sources include:
These data sets are generally distributed as full scenes, meaning the entire swath or footprint is downloaded.
They also generally come at “Level-1” processing, essentially, top-of-atmosphere (TOA) level, meaning effectively that atmospheric corrections must still be performed.
Commercial data sources
Commercial datasets are available from various providers and distributed from an even wider range of resellers at a range of prices.
Thus, it isn’t easy to generalize pricing formats since every provider will have their own guidelines.
No two providers are the same. But, most have a minimum AOI size that must be purchased, with options of various levels of pre-processing, some that are only performed for an additional fee.
When buying satellite imagery, you may pay per tile or square kilometer. Volume discounts are common, and prices can vary according to the following factors:
- Cloud coverage and incidence angle (only applies for tasking)
- "Freshness" or recency of acquisition (for archive data)
- Archive vs. Tasking
- Delivery time
- Subscription service vs. pay-per-use
- Pre-processing
- Bands (e.g panchromatic vs. full multispectral)
With commercial satellites, images can either be from archives or, if you are looking for up-to-date imagery, can be tasked on demand.
However, it comes with the guarantee of the requested specific date range and any other preferred specifications (within reason).
Moreover, many distributors or resellers apply "pricing uplifts" which is essentially an additional fee if you want to share your data with more than 3-5 users.
You can discover some commercial data sets for yourself below, such as SPOT 6/7 and Pléiades.
A chart of various high-resolution and medium-resolution satellite imagery sources and their respective order prices (per sq km, not accounting for minimum area size) based on whether the order is for archive imagery (> 90 days old), standard tasked imagery, or priority tasked imagery. Some companies also offer options of fresh archive (< 90 days) and rushed tasking.
Over the past two decades, commercially available satellite imagery has evolved into a mature and thriving industry.
Rich, crisp imagery that is global and cloud-free was once reserved for government intelligence eyes only. Now, commercial satellite imagery is a treasure trove of valuable information for anyone looking to purchase and use it.
So, how can you do that? Let's find out.
Free = lower resolution.
I'm still looking and probably going to try for SPOT or Pleiades. over the next few days.
Will spending several hundred $s for a year give better data? Should be able to resolve some aspects about site preparation but telling azimuth and dip and depth (EG from how long a diamond rig is on site) may not be possible.
A Noob Q? No IMO.
Good luck if you find something. Please share.
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