Mapbox Satellite Imagery

good news!

Mapbox together with Digital Globe made it possible to have nearly full Satellite Imagery coverage of Thailand.

http://www.digitalglobeblog.com/2014/04/09/mappingtheworldinosm/
https://lists.openstreetmap.org/pipermail/talk/2014-April/069640.html

You might have to refresh the list of imagery providers in the JOSM settings dialog.
As tiles are limited to zoom 17 I did edit the config to limit to z17 (replace [19] by [17]) This enables “overzoom” which makes editing a bit easier.

Be extra cautious of the imagery adjustment. I checked in the Hua Hin area and it’s shifted by apx. 25 meters there. Refrain from large geometry adjustments if you are not certain about exact position. Better refrain from drawing building outlines when not certain that the alignment in the area you plan to work on is right (or adjusted).
Chiang Mai near the moat looks good.

Some areas have only black/white imagery which looks even worse aligned, compare Hua Hin Airport.

I have no idea about the age of the material. Some zoom levels still show Bangkok flooded. When zooming in further it’s without the flooding.
I am not sure whether that imagery is older or newer. Does anyone knows whether Don Muang golf course is still there? Imagery there is the same than used by google just, two zoom levels less.

After all that critics I think we can still be very thankful for that imagery which fills a lot of gaps in the Bing imagery.
I would be pleased to see if we can have the major highway network completed in this year. At least routable geometry.

I think the ‘black and white’ images are actually shifted to the infrared. So rivers (and cool objects) show up clearly. I’ve been comparing Bing vs Mapbox for rivers and Mapbox is way better. So they are not just b + w, but outside our normal visual spectrum, and so are very useful.

The alignment east of Chiang Mai seems pretty good so far.

Thanks for the note, MapBox images are a big help!

You are right Tom,

Imagery of these areas looks very similar to the data from the near-infrared Landsat instrument.

In case there is a problem with the imagery (clouds. mis-aligned, missing, outdated, …) there is a feedback tool from mapbox to report back these issues.

Currently it has a problem which prevents loading the feedback form (you enter a comment below the selection) in Firefox. Worked in Chrome.

https://www.mapbox.com/labs/request/#6/15.549/100.822

Oh boy, oh boy. Very exciting. How did OSM ever pull that off? Some roads that I was unable to finish north of Lampang last winter can be extended now with the help of the new imagery.

I’m heading to Alaska in a couple of weeks and will be checking the coverage there as well.

Got the bulk of Phrao in … that was long overdue ! Not finished yet.