>> a) These areas are restricted airspace, and most of the aerial imagery Google et al buy is taken from airplanes.
Just replying to point out that this is true. I worked 3 summers for "Aerometric", a company that does exactly this. We flew flight lines from 10-20 thousand feet with a huge camera rig. Those photos were transmitted back to corporate, where they are stitched back together to form large high-resolution aerial maps. Our customers were usually timber companies, gas/oil companies, and occasionally FEMA.
Until that job, I naively assumed everything was a satellite image with some Bond-like zoom capabilities.
Just replying to point out that this is true. I worked 3 summers for "Aerometric", a company that does exactly this. We flew flight lines from 10-20 thousand feet with a huge camera rig. Those photos were transmitted back to corporate, where they are stitched back together to form large high-resolution aerial maps. Our customers were usually timber companies, gas/oil companies, and occasionally FEMA.
Until that job, I naively assumed everything was a satellite image with some Bond-like zoom capabilities.