Updated 24 October 2026: added GeoInfer (AI photo geolocation; 3 free searches a day, no account) to Geolocation Tools, after hands-on testing with photos of known locations.
Updated 16 October 2026: added GeoWhisperer, Google Earth Detect change, Amazon Mining Watch and Africa Mining Watch to Satellite Imagery, and Watch Duty to Weather & Environment, with a short section on checking what changed at a place.
Updated 12 October 2026: added World Monitor and ShadowBroker (with a privacy and legal caution) to Live Cameras, Liveuamap and DeepStateMap to Geolocation Tools, and Umbra Open Data and Earth Index to Satellite Imagery.
Updated 12 October 2026: added God's Eye View (open-source 3D globe with live flights, satellites and public traffic cameras) to Live Cameras.
Updated 8 October 2026: added Overpass Turbo, Bellingcat OSM Search, ShadeMap, PeakFinder, PeakVisor (freemium), GeoHints, GeoConfirmed and a link to our Coordinate Converter; removed Sentinel Hub EO Browser (Planet shut it down on 20 March 2026 — use the Copernicus Browser). GeoSpy is not listed: it is now restricted to vetted government and enterprise customers.
How Do You Research a Location Using Geolocation OSINT?
Max Intel's Geolocation OSINT tool provides access to 20+ mapping, satellite imagery, and environmental data services. Geolocation analysis is recognized by the U.S. Intelligence Community as Geospatial Intelligence (GEOINT), formalized under NGA.
Mapping & Navigation
Interactive mapping is available through Google Maps, Google Earth, Bing Maps, OpenStreetMap, Yandex Maps, and HERE WeGo. Each mapping service offers different advantages — Google for coverage and satellite detail, OpenStreetMap for community-contributed data and offline access, Yandex for better coverage in Russia and Central Asia.
Where Can You Get Free Satellite Imagery?
Free satellite imagery comes from ESA's Copernicus program via the Copernicus Browser (10-meter resolution Sentinel-2 data updated every 5 days), NASA Worldview (daily global imagery from multiple NASA satellites), Zoom Earth (near-real-time composite views), FIRMS (active fire detection), and Copernicus (European earth observation data). Planet Explorer offers commercial-grade daily imagery with limited free access.
Two newer free sources help with harder cases. Umbra Open Data offers time-series SAR (radar) imagery at 25 cm to 1 m resolution under a Creative Commons licence. You download it through AWS or a STAC catalog, with no sign-up Umbra (read 12 Oct 2026). Earth Index, from the non-profit Earth Genome, searches Sentinel-2 imagery with AI. You label a few example sites, and it finds similar places for you to review Earth Genome (read 12 Oct 2026). It needs a sign-up.
How Do You Check What Changed at a Place Over Time?
GeoWhisperer is a free beta tool by Henk van Ess. You type an address and compare dated releases of Esri's World Imagery Wayback archive, which goes back to February 2014. Views include swipe, side-by-side and fade, and it can export a report and a short movie. Looking needs no account GeoWhisperer (read 16 Oct 2026). It runs seven mechanical checks, such as season and zoom, before it describes changes cell by cell. Its own page warns that the archive "holds what Esri published, not every image a satellite took", and that Esri updates are sometimes years apart.
Google Earth "Detect change" is an experimental feature launched on 23 September 2026. You pick two years between 2017 and 2025, and it draws a heatmap of detected change at 10-metre resolution. It is built on Google's AlphaEarth satellite embeddings (a compact summary of optical, thermal and radar data for each patch of ground) Google Maps Platform blog (23 Sep 2026). Google says it is available on Google Earth web for "Standard plan" users, with more on professional plans. The heatmap can flag change you cannot see, such as soil moisture, flooding or biomass shifts. Google's docs label it pre-GA and tell you to confirm each hit in historical imagery or Street View Google developer docs (read 16 Oct 2026).
Mining from space. Amazon Mining Watch uses AI on satellite imagery to map the impact of gold mining across all nine Amazon countries Amazon Mining Watch (read 16 Oct 2026). Africa Mining Watch launched in 2026. It is a project by Earth Genome with Code for Africa and the Pulitzer Center, and both maps are built on Earth Index GIJN (18 Sep 2026). Its first sweep lists 123,541 suspected mining detections in 13 countries in West Africa and the Congo Basin. The site says detections are not a register of mines, carry no date, do not separate licensed from illegal sites, and include errors. It offers the data as a download and credits the analysis to Code for Africa and Earth Genome under CC BY 4.0 Africa Mining Watch (read 16 Oct 2026). The Amazon site states no licence, so ask before reusing its data.
Wildfires. Watch Duty is a live wildfire map and alert app run by a nonprofit. It draws on radio scanners, cameras, satellites and official announcements. Basic information is free, and a yearly membership costs US$24.99 GIJN (26 Aug 2026). GIJN's review focuses on the US West.
Reading FIRMS hotspots. A FIRMS dot is a heat signal, not proof of a strike. Compare the spot with the previous 30 to 90 days, switch on the Static Thermal Anomalies layers that flag flares and industrial heat, and prefer 375 m VIIRS detections to 1 km MODIS ones NASA FIRMS FAQ (read 16 Oct 2026). The four checks are in our satellite image verification guide.
Live Cameras and Tracking Layers
God's Eye View is an open-source 3D globe by Bilawal Sidhu and Sameh Khamis. It layers live flights, satellites, earthquakes, fires and about 3,900 public traffic cameras from city and state feeds GitHub README (read 12 Oct 2026). It runs on your own computer; there is no official hosted version yet. No API keys are needed to start, but some layers need free or metered keys. The README warns that its data may be delayed, modelled or wrong, and that camera positions are estimated GitHub README (read 12 Oct 2026).
World Monitor is an open-source (AGPL-3.0) real-time dashboard. It combines news aggregation, geopolitical monitoring and infrastructure tracking GitHub README (read 12 Oct 2026). You can self-host it or use the hosted site at worldmonitor.app. Its pricing page lists a Free plan at $0 and Pro at $39.99 a month, with API plans above that World Monitor pricing (read 12 Oct 2026).
ShadowBroker is a self-hosted (Docker) dashboard, licensed AGPL-3.0, that puts real-time public OSINT feeds on one map GitHub README (read 12 Oct 2026). Use it with care. It labels private jets with owner names, plays police and fire scanner feeds and shows live CCTV and traffic cameras. Check your local law before listening to scanners or tracking named people, and use it responsibly. Its README also says its messaging is not end-to-end encrypted.
For conflict news on a map, Liveuamap says it is "covering security and conflict reports around the world". It is ad-supported, with ad-free plans from $8 a month Liveuamap (read 12 Oct 2026). DeepStateMap is a map of the war in Ukraine; its page does not name who runs it DeepStateMap (read 12 Oct 2026). Treat both as leads and check the underlying reports.
Coordinates, Sun Times and Time Zones
FieldCalc is a free set of more than 40 small geospatial tools that says it needs no account and runs in your browser FieldCalc (read 16 Oct 2026). The useful ones for verification convert coordinates between latitude/longitude, UTM, MGRS and degrees-minutes-seconds, give sunrise, sunset and golden-hour times for a place, name the time zone at a coordinate, and plot an elevation profile. For shadow direction at a given time, SunCalc (linked above) is still the quicker check.
Street-Level Imagery
Street-level views help verify ground conditions. Google Street View has the broadest coverage. Mapillary provides crowdsourced imagery that's often more recent than Google's coverage. KartaView supplements with dashcam-quality street views. Instant Street View provides quick access to panoramic imagery.