satellite image

The importance of satellite images

Satellite images are images of Earth collected by imaging satellites that are operated either by governments or companies. Satellite images are one of the most powerful and important tools we have for monitoring the earth. They track the physical environment (water, air, land, vegetation) and the changing human footprint across the globe. Satellite imagery is used to measure, identify and track human activity.

Satellite images have many applications for instance in meteorology and weather forecasting,  fishing, oceanography, agriculture, conservation, forestry, landscape analysis, geology, mapping, regional planning, environmental assessment, intelligence, warfare and education.  In education, satellite images are present in textbooks and online as support for maps, graphs and text.

satellite image

Currently, improvements in Earth Observation programs are opening the door for the educational community to increasingly use satellite image products. You can access them from the following links.

European Space Agency (ESA) :Using infra-red imagery
Edusat: Aprendre a observar la Terra
European Space Agency (ESA): Education resources 
NASA visible earth: image catalogue
NASA Earth Data Learn:  learning about image sensors 
Landsat Outreach: education resources
USGS: tracking change over time
Sentinel Hub: learn about satellite imagery