The Satellite rendering shows the Earth as you would see it from space: the true colours of forests, deserts, glaciers and oceans, lit by the relief.

How it is made

The images come from the Sentinel-2 satellites of the European Copernicus programme, which photograph all the land on Earth about every five days, with a 10-metre detail. For the period you choose, a year since 2018 and a season, we keep the least cloudy images.

The image is then draped over a model of the terrain and lit by the sun of the day it was taken: the shadows of the mountains and valleys fall where they really were. The "Natural colors" style keeps faithful tones. Our article Where our images come from tells the whole story.

Strengths

  • The true colours of the Earth, anywhere in the world.
  • The year and the season of your choice: the same place under snow in winter, green in spring, golden at the end of summer.
  • Very large areas, up to 180,000 km²: a whole region, a large island, a delta.

Good to know

  • A 10-metre detail: you can read towns, roads and fields, not houses. For a village in France, the Aerial rendering is made for that.
  • From 650 km², about 31 × 21 km: below that, the image would not be sharp on a poster.
  • In the tropics, in high mountains or on coasts in winter, a few clouds may remain despite the choice of the clearest dates. The preview is free: try another season or another year.

Which places?

A region, an island, a coast, a delta, a mountain range, anywhere in the world:

  • deltas and lagoons, like Venice, reveal the colours of their waters;
  • deserts and volcanoes, like those of our place of the month, become abstract paintings;
  • the season changes everything: around Lake Annecy, the April snow on the summits has gone by September (images below).

Which poster size?

Size M (60 × 40 cm) is sharp for every area offered. Size L (75 × 50 cm) needs an area of about 950 km², size XL (90 × 60 cm) about 1,400 km². The site only offers the sizes that print sharply for your area.

To compare with the other renderings, read Which rendering to choose?.