If the day ever comes where satellite pix are available real time (even if only 1 pix a day!) is the day that beach hunters could see where mother nature is cutting a "scallop" and/or the beach is narrower indicating a spot is eroding), etc..... But alas, as has been pointed out, the pix on google satellite can be even up to 3 yrs. old. Or as recent as a month old. All of which do absolutely no good, since the wet beach inter-tidal zone changes daily.
Where I'm at in CA we have several military bases. One of which is the Navy meteorological weather station people. I have talked to people there about this, and here's what they say:
a) with all the satellites circling the earth right now, the military can direct them to take pix at a desired zone. Like military hot spot going on, or whatever. But that .... no, they are not perpetually always taking pix of every inch of earth, every day. Only when directed to do so. NOT because the ability isn't there right now, but...
b) It was explained to me that the amount of computer storage space JUST to be able to store all the google satellite photos of the earth (that, as said, can be up to years old) is IMMENSE and expensive. So to update it daily, for everywhere (as opposed to just select spots desired to be watched by the military) is simply impossible, from a data storage perspective.
c) and the reality is, that cloud cover obscures vast portions of the earth at any given time. So your *odds* of getting a clear view of the same spot, to compare day-by-day-by-day, is slim. Unless you're snapping multiple pix of the same spot (through multiple satellites over that part of the planet that you could command), throughout a particular day, and then choosing the one or two that have a clear shot.
just too much man-hours, man-power, computer storage space, etc.....
