Google Maps satellite imagery has received a major boost in quality. Thanks to the new Landsat 8 satellite, the images are now sharper with better color. Landsat 8 was launched into orbit in 2013 by USGS and NASA to replace Landsat 7. The satellite imagery we had before was from Landsat 7, which served us well over the years but the image quality wasn't good enough anymore and a hardware failure caused it to produce large diagonal lines across images. Before After Landsat 8, in comparison, captures images with greater detail, truer color and over twice the frequency of...
Source: http://www.gsmarena.com/google_maps_update_brings_sharper_satellite_imagery-news-19084.php
