Up to date basemaps: Aerial and Aerial Hybrid Imagery

[Ed_]

So it seems that the Aerial basemap imagery is not the most recent (maybe the temporal resolution varies from place to place). However, it should be as recent as possible, if the said place has more recent aerial imagery available elsewhere, that way the use doesn't have to go other resources such as Google Earth or Google Maps. In the example below, it can be seen that Google Earth has more recent imagery and the aerial basemap is outdated.

Google Earth

Basemap

[SteveCole]

I'm sure ESRI has some sort of update schedule (no idea of what it actually is) but they also do have the Imagery Map Feedback where you can draw their attention to areas you think they should get updated imagery.

[Ed_]

Hey Happy Monday Steve, hope all is well, cheers for sharing the feedback web map. I will go ahead and leave some feedback there as well 🙂 

[SteveCole]

No problem. With all things ESRI, have low expectations and be pleasantly surprised when they act. 😆

[SteveCole]

Having just needed to submit an update request myself, I should share what I think is an updated map link to submit requests in. I believe the new suite of apps ESRI has to submit basemap feedback can be accessed here.

While I did submit an imagery feedback through the older web map I had linked out earlier in this thread, the newer Instant App based interface seems to be the preferred method now (the actual feature did get added to the underlying layer through the older web map, though).

[Ed_]

i see thank you for the update Steve 🙂

i was able to find the link to the Basemap feedback here https://esri.maps.arcgis.com/apps/instant/sidebar/index.html?appid=fd83089ab5634391bf96cb7076b73c09

And yeah i was able to submit the feedback via that older web map as well

[Ed_]

i was actually surprised that ESRI ariel basemap imagery is not as recent as Google's considering ESRI is the Microsoft of GIS and Ariel base map is the default base map and the first one in the base map list.

[RTPL_AU]

@Ed_  I suspect the holdup on everyone having the latest & greatest is related to contract terms, cost, & licensing negotiations between Esri and the imagery owners. 
With everything going on in the world (coming from a typical 'World Series' perspective....) I suspect these contracts are getting hard to nail down.  

Google might also be saying 'we'll pay double but want a 24 month exclusivity clause'. 

On the flip-side - be careful what you ask for. We don't want to give them another excuse to up licences costs 25% again....

[Debert]

I'm experiencing similar issues with Esri basemap being outdated. I was under the impression Esri would update basemaps regularly and that is why I went that route over custom basemaps which would require reaching out to 18 counties to request the imagery, cache imagery to tiles, pay credits to store, and then repeat that process for every update. Made more sense to go the Esri basemap route and let them handle the updates/not pay to store tiles, etc.

The only benefit I see to using a custom basemap is our map could be in the correct coordinate system (us feet) and not have to be in WGS Web Mercator (meters).