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Hello everyone.

For months I've been using DigitalGlobe Premium as bakground imagery in JOSM. It has also been used for tasking manager tasks. But later I found out that the imagery became discontinued and shows Bing imagery instead (I don't know if they really use Bing or just similarity). The previous DigitalGlobe premium imagery was more recent, clear and accurate and now it messes up our tasks to have only Bing as imagery. Even worse, Bing seems to have had an update and has an offset and a noticeable distortion as compared as before (so elements drawn with previous version are very hard or even impossible to align to the newer version).

  • So is DigitalGlobe really discontinued? I really miss the imagery!
  • And how do you deal with imagery updates that can't be aligned to existing data anymore?

Thanks.

asked 02 Dec '17, 06:16

Privatemajory's gravatar image

Privatemajory
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accept rate: 23%

reverted 02 Dec '17, 13:36

Saw this posted today on the osm forum by MikeN and may be related
"...last month DigitalGlobe stopped working for me in JOSM but resumed working after updating JOSM to version 13053."

(02 Dec '17, 12:48) nevw

Hi @nevw. Thanks. But this is a problem not only in JOSM but in iD also. And everything seems OK, the imagery can be added as a layer, except that the DG Premium layer is the same as Bing (older and lower resolution). So this might be that DG isn't available anymore on my areas of edits and falls back to a Bing imagery.

(02 Dec '17, 13:32) Privatemajory
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Bing uses (except for some limited areas where they at least previously had imagery that had higher resolution) Digital Globe, not the other way around. DG has lot of different products and imagery over large periods of time, it is not really predictable who is going to display better imagery in the OSM relevant layers. Further orthorectification tends to be different depending on suppliers (in general I have found Mapbox, which again uses DG imagery, to have the best orthorectification).

(02 Dec '17, 13:35) SimonPoole ♦

Hi - this is Kevin Bullock from DigitalGlobe. First, the DG imagery is absolutely not discontinued. In fact, we are updating it right now! DG licenses imagery to Bing, Mapbox, Esri and others. So in fact, the images you see on other layers are also from DG. Sometimes, depending on which part of the world you are looking at, the imagery could be the same through all the different imagery providers.

If you can send me the coordinate you are looking at, I could help diagnose.

Also, imagery acquisition dates (aka vintage) are now available for both the DG imagery layers through ID. The shortcut is shift+command+B (on a mac). This will tell you exactly what date the image was acquired. (only works with the DG premium and standard layers)

Thanks, Kevin

permanent link

answered 06 Dec '17, 18:32

kevin_bullock's gravatar image

kevin_bullock
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accept rate: 50%

Thanks Kevin for your explanation.

So, if it's DG on both layers, why then downgrade the imagery from a more recent and better resolution to an older and less clear one? Before, the DG Premium layer gave a very good imagery but then it changed to that of now.

And another problem with DG Premium layer, when I zoom in close enough to see buildings it becomes blank, although in the Bing version there's no problem. Or maybe it's something related to the update you're talking about? You could just zoom to any city of Madagascar to see the problem, we've been working on Antsiranana (lat=-12.2779134 lon=49.2913394), Antananarivo (lat=-18.9100122 lon=47.5255809, Soavinandriana (lat=-19.1707551 lon=46.7386858)...

Thanks again!

(06 Dec '17, 18:59) Privatemajory
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the DG Premium layer gave a very good imagery but then it changed to that of now

If you can send me the coordinate for where this occurred, I can investigate.

On the DG Premium layer, if there is no imagery at zoom levels 19 and 20, this is because the area needs to be updated (and eventually will). I am looking at Antananarivo and not seeing the issue.

(06 Dec '17, 22:22) kevin_bullock

OK thanks. My problem must be related to an update then, but it's just strange that you don't see any issue zooming very close at Antananarivo (checked DG Premium layer today and imagery changes when I zoom in instead of going blank as before, this was in downtown Antananarivo). I'm looking forward to updates now.

(10 Dec '17, 18:35) Privatemajory

alt textalt textBoth DG and Bing are working in JOSM and P2 for me here Cambridgeshire and Bedfordshire UK EDIT I have added a jpeg of DG in Madagascar, so it works there as well, ( Win PC Chrome )

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answered 02 Dec '17, 07:54

andy%20mackey's gravatar image

andy mackey
13.2k87143285
accept rate: 4%

edited 04 Dec '17, 09:31

So maybe on some areas of the world they removed the availability of DG imagery. I'm working on Madagascar and same problem for most of the country :(

(02 Dec '17, 08:41) Privatemajory
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Note that DG periodically changes its API-key so maybe the issue is simply that you are using an old version of JOSM.

(02 Dec '17, 16:45) SimonPoole ♦
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It works for me. I have added a pic of a northern bay in Madagascar that i just loaded, so maybe try SimonPoole's advice

(02 Dec '17, 16:59) andy mackey
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question asked: 02 Dec '17, 06:16

question was seen: 3,206 times

last updated: 10 Dec '17, 18:35

NOTICE: help.openstreetmap.org is no longer in use from 1st March 2024. Please use the OpenStreetMap Community Forum