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Overview
DigitalGlobe is the primary commercial provider of very high-resolution (VHR) geospatial images and data for all world regions,from satellite and aerial capture. DigitalGlobe Basemap is a subscription service that provides access to customized collections of data sets from the DigitalGlobe repository tailored to the needs of individual client libraries.
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Collection Content
The database contains very high-resolution (VHR) geospatial images and data for all world regions,from satellite and aerial capture. As of December 2015 DigitalGlobe reported having an image library of "over 4 billion square kilometers of Earth-imagery," sourced from its network of Earth-orbit satellites.
Other sources of medium resolution imagery exist, some of them open access sources such as Landsat/Sentinel-2. Other providers are listed at http://vterrain.org/Imagery/commercial.html.
Delivery
DigitalGlobe content is accessed through My DigitalGlobe, a web-based application for viewing, analyzing, and downloading DigitalGlobe data. The content available through the DigitalGlobe interface varies according to the user's subscription. The application can also provide access to custom sources of geospatial data, and the platform is interoperable with ESRI's ArcGIS online application.
Terms
In November 2015 it was reported on a Liblicense post that the DigitalGlobe license contains terms that were unusually intrusive and objectionable for an academic license: making the client library responsible for all user actions; requiring the library to indemnify the vendor of DigitalGlobe; and granting the vendor the right to perform on-site audits and charge additional fees for non-compliance.
Strengths and Weaknesses
As of January 2014 DigitalGlobe was the only American company selling earth imagery in the medium-to-high range.
Services and products are heavily tailored to the needs of its national intelligence, defense, and financial clients.
Endnotes
Robinson Meyer, "Silicon Valley's New Spy Satellites" The Atlantic, January 7, 2014.
Robinson Meyer, "A New Kind of Landscape Photography" The Atlantic, December 18, 2015
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