Nimbo delivers new maps of the Earth without clouds every month. They can be used for free, with limitations and the proper attribution. Let’s take a look.
Finding high-resolution images of the Earth can be quite problematic. Despite the armada of satellite constellations circling our planet everyday, finding recent, clear, homogenous pictures of the world’s whole landmass is no small feat. Nimbo Online Basemaps has come to bridge this information gap, with free world maps that are analysis-ready for GIS professionals. These maps are available for everyone with a Nimbo account – nothing to pay there either – and can be browsed, with a free allocation of 4,000 geocredits (and paid plans should you need more). Reuse of Nimbo material is also allowed, as long as its provenance is credited.
At last, free Earth basemaps, updated monthly
Geographic information professionals need them to perform all kinds of projects, but suitable Earth basemaps are not that easy to find on the market. Cartographic products that are at once high-resolution (up to 2.5 m), cloud-free, homogenous, up-to-date, covering any bit of land on Earth, easy to upload into their GIS software, and, if possible, not too expensive. The good news is, Nimbo’s Earth Basemaps has all of that !
Based on Sentinel satellite imagery, Nimbo’s global basemaps have been cleaned from clouds through proprietary AI image processing methods. Their colors have been normalized for homogenous rendering in any pixel all over the world. With updates released mid-month for the prior, Nimbo products provide the most recent images of the Earth out there. They can stream into your regular GIS software using an individual API token – there’s even a Nimbo plugin for QGIS users.
And last but not least : access to all natural color basemaps is free !
Nimbo’s Earth Basemaps : what is free, what is not ?
The only requirement to access Nimbo’s services is to create an account here. Once your account has been verified, two ways to access our free basemap service :
- For non QGIS users, using the API token serving our Tile Map Service (TMS), available from their customer account.
- For QGIS users, through the dedicated plugin available from the QGIS repository. This will let them access all available basemaps by logging in with their account information or via the API token.
All RGB basemaps will then be available to explore and manipulate (with a watermark) until youor 4 000 geocredits run out. You can thenn either upgrade to a paid plan or wait until your credits refill the next month.
Geocredits included in Nimbo basemap service : how does it work ?
So subscription to, and use of the Nimbo Earth Basemaps service requires no payment. That does not mean that use is unlimited. Any user will get an amount of browsing credits per month – ie. geocredits – to navigate Nimbo basemaps. Once these credits run out, all services will stop until they automatically refill 30 days after subscription, and so forth in the following months.
For GIS professionals carrying out data-intensive tasks, a larger amount of geocredit may be necessary, however. There are professional Nimbo plans that cater to various needs in satellite imagery usage : Nimbo Pro and Nimbo Pro HD.
Can I reuse Nimbo’s Earth Basemaps material for free ?
After carrying out a project using Nimbo’s Earth Basemaps, you are perfectly free to repost it elsewhere for public release, as long as it is not for commercial use.
When published in print or online, on social media, press articles or videos, illustrations and animations based on Nimbo material should be provided with the following attribution:
“Nimbo by Kermap, contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (year/years)“
Check out our terms of use for further information on Nimbo data utilization. We also provide specific data utilisation licences for research and press publications, get in touch with us to know more !