Goolge Earth Pics

Hi,

Does anyone know how the images on Google Earth are generated / sourced?

The source of the images (beit satellites) is important due to the amount of images posted on ATS.

I have tried to find info on the net but only find limited info. There are about 10 pages of related Google Earth pics on ATS and I havent looked through them all.

Im interested to know wether or how often thet are updated. The pic of my house is approx 2 years out of date.

The football pitch next to my house isnt a rectangle either -

We collect it via airplane and satellite, but also just about any way you can imagine getting a camera above the Earth's surface: hot air balloons, model airplanes – even kites. The traditional aerial survey involves mounting a special gyroscopic, stabilized camera in the belly of an airplane and flying it at an elevation of between 15,000 feet and 30,000 feet, depending on the resolution of imagery you're interested in. As the plane takes a predefined route over the desired area, it forms a series of parallel lines with about 40 percent overlap between lines and 60 percent overlap in the direction of flight. This overlap of images is what provides us with enough detail to remove distortions caused by the varying shape of the Earth's surface.

from google Clicky

Loads of stuff online about where they get the images and how old they are such as Clicky and also try the googleearth forums Clicky