Virtual globe

Those wishing to portray a visually accurate representation of the Earth often use satellite image servers and are capable not only of rotation but also zooming and sometimes horizon tilting.

When this is the case, the interface often has the option of providing simplified graphical overlays to highlight man-made features, since these are not necessarily obvious from a photographic aerial view.

As more and more high-resolution satellite imagery and aerial photography become accessible for free, many of the latest online virtual globes are built to fetch and display these images.

They include: As well as the availability of satellite imagery, online public domain factual databases such as the CIA World Factbook have been incorporated into virtual globes.

This would be used as an educational tool to display large scale global patterns related to topics such as economics, geology, natural resource use, etc.