Eye in the sky

Geo-Eye, a commercial Earth-imaging satellite with 41-centimeter resolution technology, launched into space yesterday. It will orbit the Earth from 423 miles above — and provide Google with exclusive access to its high-resolution color imagery.

Geo-Eye also agreed to bear a Google logo on the satellite itself.

Every day, Geo-Eye's Google satellite will gather a format surface area that is about the size of New Mexico.

41-centimeter resolution isn't quite brag-worthy. Only black and white imagery can be pinpointed to 40 centimeters, VentureBeat points out.  Color images — which is what most people tend to use — have a max resolution of 1.65 meters, and the US government is limiting Google to 50 centimeters, according to the CNET story on the deal.

Often the best resolution is a whopping 15 square meters per pixel, which is only good enough to see larger geographic features.

To improve the images people see, Geo-Eye shall merge high resolution panchromatic and lower-resolution multispectral imagery to create a single high resolution color image, a process called "pan-sharpening."

The imaging subsystem collecting all that data was built by ITT, which reports that the imagery capabilities of the satellite's successor, GeoEye-2 — planned to launch in 2011 or 2012 — will be 25 centimeters, or about 9.75 inches.

Meanwhile, Microsoft's Live Local, formerly "Virtual Earth," offers 50-centimeter resolution for urban areas in France, thanks to a partnership with Institut Geographique National.

In the US, however, Microsoft is left in the dust. As Google zooms off with Geo-Eye, the former is still stuck with imagery from DigitalGlobe, Google's old partner.

And Yahoo, despite attempts to compete by incorporating satellite imagery to Yahoo Local at a consistent 1m/pixel resolution two years ago, has left the arena, likely to focus more on improvements to its mapping service.