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How to get the most recent satellite image of a location, free
Last updated 2026-08-06
The freshest free imagery of anywhere on Earth is Sentinel-2 (European Space Agency): 10 m per pixel, revisiting every 2–3 days over Europe. VNTG shows the latest pass date for any point and renders that image on demand. For same-day but coarse views, it also serves NASA's daily 250 m mosaics.
Step by step
- Search the location. Enter coordinates or a place name.
- Read the latest-pass line. The panel reports the most recent Sentinel-2 acquisition for that point, with cloud cover and platform.
- Render it. Press "Preview latest Sentinel-2" to draw that actual pass over the map at 10 m.
- Need today?. Open "Freshest · NASA daily" for a near-daily global mosaic (~250 m) — coarse, but current.
- Need detail instead?. Switch back to Auto for the sharpest source, which will be older but far more detailed.
There is a hard trade-off in free imagery: recency or resolution, not both. Daily high-resolution imagery exists (Planet, Airbus, Maxar) but is commercial. The free ladder is NASA daily (250 m) → Sentinel-2 (2–3 days, 10 m) → aerial/Esri (months to years, 5–30 cm).
Open VNTG — it's free →