Search a place
Start with a country, city, region, landmark, or street instead of a satellite scene catalog.
- English
- Español
- Português (Brasil)
- Français
- Deutsch
- Italiano
- 日本語
- 한국어
- Bahasa Indonesia
- हिन्दी
- 简体中文
- 繁體中文
Historical satellite imagery, without the archive learning curve
Look up old satellite maps by place and date.
EarthTrace turns public NASA satellite layers into a simpler timeline map. Search a country, city, region, or street, choose a date, and see what the public record can show.
Open map
The idea
Make public Earth imagery easier to browse.
People search for historical satellite imagery to understand urban growth, shrinking lakes, new roads, storm damage, farmland change, or simply how a familiar place looked before. EarthTrace gives that curiosity a clean starting point.
What you can do
A practical viewer for historical satellite imagery
Choose a date
Move the timeline, use year shortcuts, or jump to nearby dates when the selected day has gaps.
Read it in your language
The product site and the map viewer share the same 12-language experience.
Share or save the view
Copy a link that keeps the place, date, layer, zoom, and language, or export the current map view as a PNG.
Use cases
Built for visible change, not house-level inspection
Cities and infrastructure
Compare the broad shape of roads, airports, suburbs, industrial areas, ports, and desert-edge growth over time.
Water, coastlines, and land
Follow large patterns in lakes, deltas, reservoirs, shorelines, farmland, burns, snow, and vegetation recovery.
A multilingual public-data viewer
Keep the interface approachable for students, writers, researchers, and curious visitors in 12 languages.
How it works
Search, pick a date, then inspect the map.
Find the place
Enter a country, city, region, landmark, or street. The map opens at a useful zoom with a shareable URL.
Check nearby dates
Choose a day or a year marker. If the 30 m layer has gaps, move to a nearby date or switch to an overview layer.
Keep the result
Share a link with the current place, zoom, layer, date, and language, or download the visible map as a PNG.
Why EarthTrace exists
Most people want to see change, not operate a data archive.
USGS EarthExplorer and similar archives are powerful, but they ask users to understand sensors, scenes, metadata, and download queues. EarthTrace keeps the first step simple: search a place, pick a date, and look.
Data reality
Public satellite imagery has limits, and we say that clearly.
EarthTrace uses NASA EOSDIS GIBS layers, including a clean global overview and HLS 30 m layers suitable for city-scale patterns. It is not Google imagery or paid house-level aerial photography.
Daily 30 m imagery may be cloudy, striped, or partial. When a selected date is weak, the viewer can help move to a nearby date with usable coverage.
What people search for
Historical Satellite Imagery usually means one of a few jobs
Search results mix old satellite maps, Google Earth history, USGS downloads, and historical aerial photos. EarthTrace helps visitors understand those paths before opening a map.
A place-first map
Search a country, city, region, landmark, or street and start from a familiar location instead of a technical scene list.
Old satellite maps by date
Use the date controls to compare public satellite layers over time and test nearby dates when a day has missing coverage.
Free public imagery
Focus on public NASA and USGS-style layers, with clear guidance when an official archive is better for raw downloads.
Honest expectations
Clouds, stripes, partial scenes, and medium resolution are normal in public satellite records, so EarthTrace explains the limits.
Choose the right source
Satellite imagery, Google Earth history, and aerial photos solve different problems
Many users ask for one thing and need another. A simple viewer is good for broad landscape change; official archives and aerial-photo collections are better for raw files or address-level detail.
EarthTrace
Best for quick viewing, a multilingual interface, place search, date controls, share links, and lightweight map exports.
Google Earth historical imagery
Best when the user specifically needs Google's licensed historical mosaics or the Google Earth timeline.
USGS EarthExplorer
Best for advanced filters, scene metadata, official previews, bulk downloads, and research-grade source files.
Historical aerial photos
Best for some older addresses and sharper local detail, especially in the United States, but it is a different type of record.
Official paths
Use EarthTrace first, then go deeper when the task needs it
EarthTrace is a quick entry point. These official resources remain useful when visitors need Google-specific history, raw satellite products, or scanned aerial photography.
For Google Earth timeline behavior and Google-specific historical imagery.
For official satellite and aerial search, date ranges, scene previews, and downloads.
For public NASA imagery layers and tiled map services used by lightweight web viewers.
For historical aerial photography by address, parcel, or local area.
FAQ
Questions people ask before using old satellite maps
These answers are written for visitors who may not yet know the difference between satellite imagery, Google Earth, Google Maps, and aerial photography.
How can I view historical satellite imagery for an address?
Search the address or place, choose a public satellite layer, and select a date. If you need roof-level old photos, an aerial-photo archive is usually a better source.
Is EarthTrace the same as Google Earth historical imagery?
No. EarthTrace uses public NASA and USGS-style layers. It does not host, copy, or replace Google Earth or Google Maps historical imagery.
Can I see old satellite maps from 1999?
Often, yes for Landsat-era public imagery, but the usable date, cloud cover, and detail depend on the sensor and location.
Is historical satellite imagery free?
Many NASA and USGS public satellite layers are free to view. Commercial high-resolution imagery and certified aerial-photo products may require payment.
Why are some images cloudy, striped, or only partly visible?
Satellites record real conditions. Clouds, snow, narrow scene footprints, and sensor gaps can leave missing areas on a specific day.
Can I download historical satellite images?
EarthTrace can export the visible map view. For original GeoTIFF scenes, metadata, or official records, use USGS EarthExplorer or the relevant archive.