FAQs

Verticall52 gives you the ability to capture satellite images from space at a chosen resolution, during a chosen time frame and at a chosen location. Our satellites capture up-to-date images on a daily basis, whereas Google Earth usually displays images that are often out of date - sometimes by years.

You will receive your picture within 24 hours of placing your binding order. New images are usually available for download within 48 hours of the image being taken.

For archive images, you can tell us the maximum amount of cloud cover. We only take new pictures when the weather is fine.

On images with a resolution of 75cm per pixel, you can usually recognise everything that is about the size of a square metre, e.g. outdoor tables and small cars. At a resolution of 30cm or even 15cm you can even recognise people.

We provide images from all relevant satellites, including Airbus, Maxar and Planet Labs.

To order an image, enter your GPS coordinates, upload a geo-file or draw a polygon on the map and select your research area. You can then narrow down the time period and filter by satellite. The images that will help you with your research can be downloaded from your dashboard. For a step-by-step guide to the ordering process, click here.

A credit corresponds to a high-resolution satellite image with an area of one square kilometre.

An image with a resolution of 30cm per pixel and an area of 5km2 has a size of around 500 megabytes as a geo-tiff.

SAR sensors can see through clouds, vegetation, ice, snow and even smoke. SAR imagery can also reveal information about the surface roughness and moisture content of the earth's surface that is difficult to capture with other types of imagery. These properties open up a wide range of use cases that are not possible with standard optical imagery.

PlanetScope, operated by the US provider Planet Labs, offers 3m images of the entire Earth almost every day.

SAR stands for Synthetic Aperture Radar, a type of satellite-based radar that uses microwave signals to create images of the Earth's surface. It works by transmitting a pulse of microwave energy to the surface and then measuring the time it takes for the pulse to bounce back to the satellite. The resulting data is processed to draw a ‘picture’ of the Earth that is different from an optical image. As SAR images are not affected by the visible light spectrum, they provide images in greyscale rather than colour.

Satellite images are taken daily from space around the world without the need for a pilot. Users can utilise this data for analysis and research. Aerial images have higher resolutions as they are usually taken via aeroplanes, drones, balloons and even cars, but are taken much less frequently and are not up-to-date.

TIFF files display the same image as PNG files. If you want to open a TIFF file, you can download the free QGIS application here .

If you don't have an account yet, register in our V52 app. You can then submit your search request by entering GPS coordinates, uploading a KML file or drawing your search area as a polygon. Once you have submitted your search request, we will provide you with the best available satellite image within 24 hours.

You can upload multiple file types in the V52 app, including KML/KMZ, JSON, GeoJSON, TXT files and shape files (.shp, .dbf, .shx and .prj).

Depending on the package you have booked, we will send you a convenient invoice.