How can I view neighborhoods from my computer via satellite.?

Question

My dad stated that using my computer I can view any neighbor, right into someone back yard. I forgot to get the web address. Does anyone know how to do this, or the website to get this information

Answer 1

Yes, Google Earth. But be aware that the satellite pictures are not real-time, and can be several months old. I took a look at where my sister's house is in Hanford and Google Earth just shows a vacant lot (they built their house about six months ago).

You'll need a broadband internet connection to run Google Earth (not dial-up), and a decently fast machine helps a lot.

Answer 2

No, the laws of physics are not very favorable for using satellites that way. First of all, we are always talking about electromagnetic waves. May it be optical, infrared or any kind of radar. Such waves have a few physical properties, which limit the accuracy of observations. The longer the wavelength is, the bigger the sensor aperture (opening diameter) has to be for achieving an so called angular resolution. Usually, this resolution is measured in seconds of arc, which means 1/3600th of a degree. This is just the size how the object is projected on the sensor - again, it does not matter which kind of sensor it is. A radar follows the same laws as a optical camera, it just uses a much longer wavelength. Even the satellites which use the most favorable wavelength (optical window) have only a resolution of about 30 cm, some larger satellites are estimated to achieve 10 cm, but this can not be confirmed yet. If you double the wavelength, the resolution of a satellite drops (angular resolution doubles), if you double the aperture, the resolution improves (angular resolution reduced to half). So far, so simple. If a satellite would have a 8m diameter mirror for a optical telescope, it would achieve theoretically 0.015455m resolution on the ground - practically it is about 8 times bigger, because of the atmosphere. So, you could see from above, that a human might be standing there, but you can't even be sure. Even a very obese human would be only 4x4 pixels in the whole photograph - a blurred spot, that even mathematical functions can't reliably improve, as you won't stand still for days to let analysts make a good photo of you. Now, lets take a look through a window. A satellite always watches from above - it can't watch from the side. So, a typical roof window would only appear as a 1.2 x 1.2 opening. A optical telescope would still only see this window as a few pixels, and can't even tell sure, what is below it. This is worsened by reflections and refractions on the window. Helicopters watch from the side and are far closer to you than a satellite - but still you can do things to make sure that they won't have a nice time: Just install modern energy-saving windows. while infrared radiation can pass through old windows, energy-saving windows block it and make it impossible to get a sharp image. you can just say that somebody is inside it. Terahertz radar is a nice techology, but has a problem: It is affected by the atmosphere and has thus only a limited range. And as the terahertz radiation has a even longer wavelength than infrared, you would need a huge precise sensor to get the same resolution as a infrared camera. Longer wavelengths of the radar can penetrate walls and soil as well, but has much lower resolution without installing football pitch sized radar antennas. And then there is the typical problem of all radars: You also need to emit the radiation. The bigger the distance, the more power you need. The power demands of a radar grow by the distance to the forth power (distance^4 = distance^2 * distance^2). You can reduce the power demands by installing larger antennas (with better amplification) and more sensitive sensors, but this is not infinitely possible (noise can be reduced by cooling the sensor with cryogenic liquids, if you run out of coolant, the sensor is useless). You need a lot of effort for improving the sensors, that is why it is often attractive to use more power instead: The Russians installed nuclear reactors into their ocean monitoring satellites (which had still only the resolution to find big ships) for years. One of these crashed in Northern Canada when the disposal of the nuclear reactor core at the end of the lifetime of the satellite failed. So: No, they can't.

Answer 3

Google Earth!

Answer 4

Google Earth can do it, which is a program so can gloabalxplorer and a few others - but this is NOT live, just a series of photographs which is updated every now and then

Answer 5

Google Earth. I can see the pool in my parent's back yard.

Answer 6

I think your dad was exaggerating a little bit. Google Earth comes close to that, but nowhere near that invasive.

Answer 7

Have a look at Google Earth - it is fantastic, I could even see my car parked in my driveway!!

http://earth.google.com/