An Australian imagery update adds 30 billion fresh pixels to Mapbox Satellite. The new data goes in to zoom level 19, meaning you can count cars and bushes. As always, it’s licensed for OpenStreetMap tracing and is available on our Commercial Satellite plan.
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Today we’re live with fresh pixels of Australia, some of which were captured on Tuesday this week. This update is part of our ongoing global refresh of half a million km2. We select the best images, then render them with the Satellite Live processing pipeline. Today’s imagery comes to many parts of Australia, from the remotest outback to the biggest metro areas:
The Harbour Bridge crosses Sydney's massive natural harbor. Nearby (in the bottom center of this view) is the iconic Sydney Opera House. Sydney is Australia's largest city: with 4.5 million people, 1 in 5 Australians lives there. Pan around and zoom in to explore the downtown and many beautiful parks and marinas.
Melbourne is the second largest metropolitan area in Australia, and it’s often ranked as one of the most livable cities in the world. The oval stadium in this view is the MCG, the largest in the Southern Hemisphere. Zoom in on the blue tennis courts nearby and you’ll see crowds in the stands: it’s 10:37 on the first day of the Australian Open, and Serena Williams, David Ferrer, and Novak Djokovic are about to win their matches. Alice Springs is a town of only 30,000, but it’s the main hub for much of Australia’s dry interior. It grew up around a pass through a ridge of the MacDonnell Ranges. It’s one of the bases of the Royal Flying Doctor Service of Australia, which provides medical care by airplane in the outback. This image is from September 2, 2014.
Adelaide is the capital of the state of South Australia, and it is famously beautiful. The downtown core is ringed by the Adelaide Park Lands, which contain a zoo, botanic gardens, sports centers, and museums.
Lake Wirrida is one of many seasonal lakes in the outback. The region is mined for copper, gold, opals, and the iron that gives the soil its intense color. To the west, just past a railway line, is the tiny Wirrida Siding Airport.
Crisper imagery
With ultra high-res data from Digital Globe’s WorldView-2 satellite, we render down to zoom level 19. That means you can see everything from backyard gardens to street markings, footpaths in parks, and the details of industrial sites.
Raby Bay, a suburb of Brisbane. Zoom in: if you had a boat here, you could recognize it.
Recency matters
All of the 18,000 km2+ (4.5 million acres+) of new imagery is from the last year. Fresher is always better, but especially when it comes to feature extraction for the OpenStreetMap community and for Commercial Satellite.
Before and after: construction in Canberra, the national capital.
Elizabeth Quay, a $2.6 billion project on the Swan River in downtown Perth, is expected to include 1,700 apartments and new retail space.
Barangaroo, a $6 billion redevelopment of an industrial area on Sydney’s waterfront. Work started in 2012 and is scheduled to run to 2023.
Hit me up (@brunosan on Twitter) with any questions. If you’re interested in an update like today’s for another area, please visit our imagery request tracker and we’ll prioritize it.
