Microsoft/Azure Expanding Satellite Photography

[David Mills 4,739]

https://a.msn.com/r/2/BB19jbx1?m=en-us&referrerID=InAppShare

[L3m0n 56]

There is nothing about ortho in this article. Its just offering cloud computing services for sat providers.

[David Mills 4,739]

1 minute ago, L3m0n said:

There is nothing about ortho in this article. Its just offering cloud computing services for sat providers.

You used the word "ortho," so you're definitely an X-Plane guy. 

[Tuskin38 6,459]

4 minutes ago, David Mills said:

You used the word "ortho," so you're definitely an X-Plane guy. 

Erm I've seen non-X-Plane players use that term.

[Bob Scott 7,716]

The article is about expanding their data communications capability to satellite operators.  No direct nexus to flight simming.

[Dillon 2,197]

Just now, w6kd said:

The article is about expanding their data communications capability to satellite operators.  No direct nexus to flight simming.

Unless your talking about a better way to get Bing data. A new satellite network could do just that.

[Bottle 663]

Kongsberg Satellite Services is partnered to the system and they include significant satellite image systems. Could be good news for quality and frequency of Bing maps updates. Thanks for pointing this out.

[Bob Scott 7,716]

9 minutes ago, Dillon said:

Unless your talking about a better way to get Bing data. A new satellite network could do just that.

Well, it's just competition for the already-existing ground station services like what AWS currently provides.  So it's analagous to a cable operator coming into your neighborhood when you already have DSL...you access the same data and systems either way.  It's not a new system, it's a new comm channel you can use to access your existing and future systems. 

Its existence and the associated competition may drive costs down some, but the built-in assumption with MSFS' reliance on Bing's map database seems to be that all-you-can-eat access to petabyte-class datasets is dirt cheap already.

[otakuon 8]

21 minutes ago, Tuskin38 said:

Erm I've seen non-X-Plane players use that term.

Indeed, those of us who work in GIS are very familiar with orhthomosaics and building them from aerial imagery.  That being said, it would be great if Bing would do another pass on their current imagery used for  generating the 3D map.  It is many years out of date (although, Google's 3D map is also out of date by about as many years....it takes a lot of work to create a global 3D map).