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How to Select the Best Satellite Imagery Provider for Geospatial Analysis

In our increasingly data-centric environment, satellite imagery serves a vital role in geospatial analysis and can inform industries as diverse as agriculture, urban planning, defense, environmental monitoring, and disaster response. Unfortunately, selecting a ready-made satellite imagery provider is complicated due to differences in data quality, coverage, price, and specifications of interest. This guide will assist you in navigating these aspects to find the right provider for your geospatial analysis.


Searching satellite imagery on the GeoWGS84 data store
Searching satellite imagery on the GeoWGS84 data store

  1. Establish Your Geospatial Analysis Requirements


Before you start looking for the specific provider, you must start with your use case. Ask yourself:


  • Use Case: Will you be monitoring crop health, recognizing urban development, or exploring environmental change?

  • Resolution Requirements: Are you looking for high-resolution imagery (sub-meter) or a moderate resolution (5 to 30 meters)?

  • Update Frequency: How frequently does your analysis require imagery updates (daily, weekly or monthly)?

  • Area of Focus: Are you focused on local, regional or global analysis?


Establishing these requirements should help you identify providers that specialize in the type of data you want.


  1. Assessing Quality and Resolution of Data


The quality of satellite images is an essential aspect of accurate geospatial assessment. Different factors may be involved, including:


  • Spatial resolution: a function of how much detail can be provided; a higher spatial resolution provides more detail, which is important for precise mapping

  • Spectral bands: some tools—like vegetation monitoring and water quality assessments involve multispectral and/or hyperspectral imaging.

  • Radiometric resolution: higher radiometric resolutions are a better reflection of small differences in light intensity, which can contribute to more accurate assessments.

  • Cloud coverage: It is preferred to work with providers who can offer cloud-free or low cloud imagery in order to avoid gaps in data.


Quality imagery leads to trustworthy insights as well as the reduction of analytical errors.


  1. Evaluating Data Availability and Integration


In order for any analytical process to be efficient, easy data access and integration with existing geospatial processes are critical. Think about the following:


  • API Access: Does the data provider have APIs to allow for automated data collection?

  • Format Compatibility: Are the pieces of imagery already in a format that is conducive to GIS software (ie ArcGIS, QGIS, Google Earth Engine)?

  • Cloud Platform Integration: Several data providers provide cloud integration for analysis of images and mapping recharge analysis at scale to optimize processing workflows.


Access and ease of access reduce the amount of time you have to spend simply preprocessing data before the analysis itself can be done.


  1. Explore Historical and Temporal Coverage


If you are looking at trends or doing change detection, historical data will often be just as valuable as the most recent imagery. Think about the following:


  • Archive Access: Do you have the ability to access historical data sets for comparison purposes?

  • Temporal Resolution: How often is the area of interest recaptured or imaged? For wet and dry seasons or not, frequent and rapid revisits are critical if you ultimately want to monitor dynamic and changing landscapes and temporal collusion.


Data providers with established historical archives result in long-term studies and stronger analytic and predictive analyses.


  1. Examine Pricing and Licensing Conditions


The cost of satellite imagery can differ greatly based on resolution, coverage area, and licensing limits. Rationalizing:


  • Cost per Scene versus Subscription: A 'purchase as needed' approach can work for one-time projects, but if your project is ongoing and requires analysis, a subscription can be the economically reasonable route.

  • Licensing Restrictions: Ensure you can use imagery for commercial purposes, share with executives and partners, and incorporate into your project or product.

  • Hidden Costs: Depending on the providing organization (and their intentions!), be aware that they may charge extra for high-resolution data, cloud processing, and/or specific formats.


Once you have learned about an organization, ensure that they are a satisfying fit with your legal and economic constraints for long-term analysis.


  1. Research Provider Reputation and Support


Quality technical support could be beneficial and reduce the risk of operational downtimes. Consider:


  • Customer Reviews. Look for reviews from organizations in your industry.

  • Technical Support. Check for reasonable response times and whether they have documented the process, tutorials, and technical training available.

  • Innovation and Updates. Most organizations update their satellites and sensors frequently, and stay with a forward-looking organization for continuous data amid new developments.


Using a trusted organization will enhance inspection data confidence.


  1. Popular Satellite Imagery Provider Suitable for Geospatial Analysis


Here are a few high-quality providers in the US and global market:


  1. GeoWGS84.com: GeoWGS84 is a satellite imagery integrator specialising in multi-source data fusion, processing, and delivery.


    GeoWGS84 partners with leading global satellite imagery providers—including Maxar Technologies, 21AT, Satellogic, and SI Imaging Services (KOMPSAT)—to deliver a comprehensive range of geospatial data solutions. Through these collaborations, GeoWGS84 provides access to very high-resolution satellites such as WorldView Legion, WorldView-1/2/3, GeoEye-1, Pléiades, KOMPSAT, and TripleSat, along with medium-resolution sources like SPOT, PlanetScope, Sentinel, Landsat, and ALOS. This extensive integration enables GeoWGS84 to supply precision optical imagery for advanced geospatial analysis, mapping, and AI-powered applications worldwide.


  2. Maxar Technologies: High resolution and globally covered imagery; best support for an analytics framework.


  3. Planet Labs: High resolution and support for frequent revisit; ideal for change detection over time for medium-resolution imagery.


  4. Airbus Intelligence - provides a type of service with a diversified fleet of satellites. A combination of Optical and radar imagery.


  5. Sentinel Hub / Copernicus Program: Free and open-source data; moderate resolution imagery; developed imagery reuse and vast capability of models make this ideal for the research field and environmental monitoring.


GeoWGS84.com stands out, as they offer accurate, readily available satellite imagery with the option to allow for a flexible license structure to be available for professionals ready to launch and collect reliable satellite imagery.


Determining the best accredited and recognized satellite and image providers while performing geospatial analysis takes careful consideration of resolution, coverage, retrieval frequency, access, price, and overall support of service. GeoWGS84.com is an example of a widely available provider in the US and around the globe that offers qualified imagery enviable by many other imagery providers for use outside of geospatial analysis.


It is important to understand your specific requirements and then contrast provider capability across those dimensions so that efficiencies may be gained for your geospatial projects planning that result in deliverable actions.


For more information or any questions regarding satellite imagery, please don't hesitate to contact us at


USA (HQ): (720) 702–4849

India: 98260-76466 - Pradeep Shrivastava

Canada: (519) 590 9999

Mexico: 55 5941 3755

UK & Spain: +44 12358 56710


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