Is it possible to view real time sattelite images?

[LeighMarie]

A couple of years ago someone told me that their neighbor showed them on their smart phone real time sattellite images. They said that the person zoomed in on their town and then on to their home and then the followed a car that drove by and watched the car drive all over town. Is this possible? If so, who provides this service?

[Robert]

I think they may have been pulling your leg.

While real time high res satellite images are possible, the average person doesn't have access to them on their cell. What you may have seen was a satellite image from 1 to 5 years ago with real time GPS data overlayed on top of it. That is very real and very possible. Remember seeing the ads for the cell phone where the users all looked like red dots? They had activated this service to record their GPS coordinates and share that info with their friends. So their friends could know where they were.

But no they weren't real time satellite images. Only realtime data on top of years old satellite imagery.

[adaviel]

It's not possible with current technology

You could put a huge camera in geosync orbit, and track people in realtime, but I believe it would require a mirror larger than is currently possible to image something as small as car, or even a building.

If you use a spy satellite in low earth orbit, it could take a snapshot every 90 minutes as it goes overhead, which is good enough to watch troops being deployed, but not enough to follow a car across a city.

[adaviel]

It's not possible with current technology

You could put a huge camera in geosync orbit, and track people in realtime, but I believe it would require a mirror larger than is currently possible to image something as small as car, or even a building.

If you use a spy satellite in low earth orbit, it could take a snapshot every 90 minutes as it goes overhead, which is good enough to watch troops being deployed, but not enough to follow a car across a city.

[AdnanFarooqChatha]

yes it is possible

[quantumclaustrophobe]

Not unless you're part of the CIA, NSA, some other agency that has a three- or four-letter acronym for their name....

[JosephV]

Yes, it is possible, though not with motion. Say for example, Google satellite image of our locality did show a neighbours house being built, with new images each day. It is fine enough to view our own house, and the coconut trees that are planted in a row along the road.

Also note that real time images from Weather Satellites can show the cloud patterns and thus are useful to predict the rains, etc.

[JosephV]

Yes, it is possible, though not with motion. Say for example, Google satellite image of our locality did show a neighbours house being built, with new images each day. It is fine enough to view our own house, and the coconut trees that are planted in a row along the road.

Also note that real time images from Weather Satellites can show the cloud patterns and thus are useful to predict the rains, etc.

[JohnW]

Just hack the CIA, the Chinese do it all the time, it's probably a class assignment for them.