Select your area and compare two years with Sentinel-2 for free. For building checks, planning and legal matters, buy historical satellite imagery down to 30 cm and a change detection report from Rodosto.
The preview comparison is 10 m resolution and cannot show a single building. For building checks, order 30–50 cm archive imagery.
A Before
B After
Source: Copernicus Sentinel-2 · Element 84 Earth Search. The cloud figure covers the whole scene; the preview uses the scene in which your area is clearest.
1 Select the area
You can also drop the file onto this panel.
No area selected yet.
2 Pick two years
Preview available
Preview available
A shortcut fills the highlighted field. Dashed years have no preview; that imagery is sourced from the archive on order. You can also enter a month (06.2019) or a day (15.06.2019).
Draw your area or upload a file, pick two years and press Compare. The preview is free for 2017 onwards.
The preview uses open Sentinel-2 data from the European Union's Copernicus programme. Scenes are found in the Element 84 Earth Search catalogue and the imagery is read from the AWS Open Data archive straight into your browser. Only your area's bounding box is sent to these services; text you type in the search box goes to OpenStreetMap Nominatim. Your area is not sent to Rodosto unless you place an order.
What we deliver
The free preview shows large-scale change with 10 m Sentinel-2 imagery. For orders, imagery is sourced through our partners from commercial satellite archives (1 m down to 30 cm, depending on the period) and aerial photo archives, and the Rodosto team prepares the analysis and report.
A dated, sourced report showing what changed in your area between the years you choose.
Did a structure stand on the plot on a given date? We check with the high-resolution archive image closest to that date.
Archive satellite imagery or aerial photos for the dates you choose, for your own review, project or file.
Who it's for
Useful whenever you need to show an area's past with a date and a source.
Show when a structure first appeared, for permits, regularisation or enforcement questions.
Archive imagery and a report showing when a change happened in boundary, encroachment or unauthorised building disputes.
See a site's history before you buy land or property: fill, construction, flooding, tree clearing.
Cropping patterns, forest edges and change after fire or felling; dated imagery for subsidy and damage claims.
Document the progress of a building site, quarry or landfill between dates.
Regular monitoring of unauthorised building and land change over large areas.
How it works
Draw it on the map, upload a KML or search for an address. Enter the before and after years and see the free preview for 2017 onwards straight away.
Send the form or message us on WhatsApp. We check which dates are available in the archive and get back to you within 1 business day with a price and delivery time. Quotes are free.
Once you approve, we source the imagery and carry out the analysis. The report and imagery are delivered by email.
Sources and resolution
| Source | Resolution | Period | What you can see |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sentinel-2 Free preview | 10 m | 2017 to today | Large changes such as roads, housing estates, industrial and mining sites; single buildings are not visible |
| Landsat | 30 m | 1984 to today | Long-term change in land cover, coastlines and lakes |
| Commercial satellite archive | 60 cm – 1 m | Roughly 2000–2008 | Building footprints, roads, plot layout |
| Commercial satellite archive | About 50 cm | From about 2008 | Individual buildings and extensions |
| Commercial satellite archive | About 30 cm | From about 2014 | Roofs, yards and small extensions in detail |
| Aerial photo archive | Depends on scale and year | From the 1950s, depending on the area | Buildings and land before 1984 |
Sources other than Sentinel-2 are obtained to order through our partners. Commercial archive resolution varies by year and region, and the period boundaries are approximate. We check archive coverage for your date and tell you at the quote stage.
When you press Compare, the tool searches the Element 84 Earth Search catalogue for Sentinel-2 L2A scenes covering your area. If you enter only a year, it looks at 1 May to 30 September of that year; for a month it uses that month, and for a day it looks 15 days either side. Among scenes with 40% cloud or less, it picks the one with the least cloud and shadow inside your area according to the scene classification layer (SCL). Only the part of the true-colour image that covers your area and its surroundings is read, and everything outside your area is slightly darkened.
A 10 m resolution is enough to see a new housing estate, road, industrial plant, quarry or change in field patterns, but not a single house or extension. The preview is for information only; if you need material with a clear date and source, order one of the services above. Areas whose bounding box exceeds 100 km² get no preview, but you can still place an order.
Archives do not hold an image for every place and every date. Coverage thins out depending on the region and year, and some images are hidden by cloud. That is why, for an order, we look for the image closest to your date in which your area is clearly visible, and state its date plainly in the report. Rather than claiming a building stood on one exact day, we bracket the period with the nearest images before and after it.
To browse archive imagery down to about 50 cm for free, use the Historical Satellite Imagery tool. If you want change over the years, slope, vegetation and building history for a plot in a single report, see the Land Report page.
The preview images are produced from Copernicus Sentinel-2 data (Contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data). Basemap © OpenStreetMap contributors.
Satellite imagery is not an official record on its own; land registry, planning and court processes rely on the records of the competent authorities. Rodosto's report states the capture date, provider and resolution of every image and can be used as supporting material in an expert assessment. How it is weighed is up to the authority or court concerned.
The free preview covers 2017 onwards. To order, Landsat goes back to 1984 (30 m) and commercial satellite archives to the early 2000s, depending on the area. Commercial archive resolution depends on the period: roughly 60 cm–1 m before about 2008, about 50 cm from 2008 and about 30 cm from 2014. Aerial photo archives reach back to the 1950s in many areas, with a resolution that depends on the scale and year of the photos. We check whether imagery exists for your date at the quote stage.
We get back to you within 1 business day. The quote lists the dates available in the archive, the price and the delivery time. Delivery time depends on whether the imagery is already in the archive and on the scope of the analysis.
A Sentinel-2 pixel covers 10 × 10 metres, so a house is only a few pixels and cannot be made out. The preview shows large changes such as new roads, housing estates, industrial or mining sites. To see a single structure you need archive imagery of about 30–50 cm, which commercial archives hold from about 2008; for earlier years we work with 60 cm–1 m imagery.
An image shows what was visible on the day it was captured. Archives rarely hold an image for the exact day you need, so we find the closest high-resolution images before and after it and report their dates, which brackets when the structure appeared. The report can support an expert assessment; it does not replace official records.
Yes. We use archive imagery to establish between which dates a structure appeared on a plot and present it in a dated report. For public bodies we also run regular monitoring of unauthorised building over large areas.
The price depends on the size of the area, the number of dates, the archive the imagery comes from and the scope of the analysis. Quotes are free and no work starts without your approval.
The report is delivered as a PDF. Imagery comes as georeferenced GeoTIFF and JPG files that open in GIS, CAD and Google Earth. On request we can also supply the changed areas as KML or GeoJSON.
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