OpenStreetMap logo OpenStreetMap

GuardedBear's Diary

Recent diary entries

When using OSM’s iD editor in New South Wales, Australia, there are multiple background layers you can enable that show aerial/satellite imagery. Different imagery sources can vary greatly in terms of how recent and/or blurry they are. Here I’ll discuss my experience using them.

OpenStreetMap's background layers for NSW, Australia

DCS NSW Imagery

This is my preferred imagery source, primarily because it’s very clear even at high zoom levels. You can see lots of detail which makes it great for mapping.

Unfortunately it’s also the oldest of the imagery sources for NSW. In Armidale it’s dated 2018, but other towns can be as old as 2009! You can enable the “DCS NSW Imagery Dates” overlay to see what date the imagery for a given area was taken.

Esri World Imagery

See full entry