Is ESRI’s World Imagery Wayback unreliable?
I was examining a timeline series of satellite images depicting the area where the Crescent and Star building, which is going to host the Turkish Defense Ministry, is under construction. The area with center point 39.924343, 32.687352 is being covered within this app with 11 versions with local changes dated from 2016-12-20 to 2025-10-23.
In version dated 2022-03-16 (using image captured Oct 21, 2021) the construction site is depicted. The same happens in all versions until version 2025-02-27 (using image captured Nov 8, 2023). Surprisingly, in later versions, 2025-09-04 and 2025-10-23 the building has disappeared. Although the app insists that the image has been captured Nov 8, 2023, the area is depicted as it was before 2021. (See the attached screenshots)
In version 2025-09-04, the satellite image is disguised just above the area of the construction with a very low resolution. (See these screenshots)
I am disappointed to find out that ESRI is using such disguised satellite images in this app, especially because I can imagine why these images have been disguised or intentionally wrongly dated.
I have used ESRI’s software for more than 30 years and I hope that in next versions the “problem” would not exist any more and the area will be shown as it really is.
