Commercial Earth-observation companies sell what public programmes do not: very high spatial resolution — down to roughly 30 cm — and on-demand tasking of specific targets at specific times. Operators such as Maxar and Airbus fly agile sub-metre optical satellites; Planet images all land daily at 3 m; newer ventures field radar and thermal constellations. For building-level mapping and time-critical intelligence, this market is where imagery comes from.
What sub-metre resolution buys
At 30–50 cm, individual buildings, vehicles, road markings, pipeline scars and construction stages are directly interpretable. Feature extraction — footprints, roads, assets — becomes feasible at engineering usefulness, and photogrammetric processing of stereo collections yields elevation models and 3D city inputs.
The trade-offs are narrow swaths, licence-based pricing per square kilometre, and archives that are rich over cities but sparse over remote areas until tasked.
Archive versus tasking
Archive purchases retrieve existing scenes — fast and cheaper, ideal when any recent date serves. Tasking commissions a future acquisition with parameters (resolution, angle, window, cloud threshold) and priority tiers that determine how aggressively the operator pursues your shot.
Programmes with recurring needs negotiate subscriptions or area-monitoring contracts, which change the economics substantially compared with scene-by-scene buying.
Frequently asked questions
How much does commercial satellite imagery cost?
Archive sub-metre imagery is typically priced per square kilometre with minimum order areas; fresh tasking costs more, rising with priority. Exact figures vary by vendor, resolution and licence — procurement comparison routinely saves significant budget.
Can commercial satellites image any location on demand?
Broadly yes, subject to orbit passes, weather, priority competition and national regulatory restrictions. High-priority tasking windows and agile satellites make most targets reachable within days.
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