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Download Free High-Resolution Satellite Imagery with QGIS and MapLibre

The Vantor Open Data Program (formerly known as Maxar Open Data) provides free high-resolution satellite imagery to support global disaster response and recovery. These images range from 30 cm to 80 cm resolution, covering events like floods, typhoons, and other natural disasters. In this tutorial, I show you how to search, visualize, compare, and download this imagery using two tools I built: a web app powered by MapLibre GL and a QGIS plugin. No programming is required for either approach.

Video tutorial: Download Free High-Resolution Satellite Imagery with QGIS and MapLibre

What You Will Need

Background: Vantor Open Data Program

Vantor (rebranded from Maxar in October 2025) releases high-resolution satellite imagery for disaster events through a STAC (SpatioTemporal Asset Catalog). The new catalog is a significant improvement over the previous system. Previously, each image was split into many small tiles, requiring you to create a virtual mosaic manually. Now the catalog provides pre-built mosaics, so you can visualize and download complete images directly. The imagery is served as Cloud Optimized GeoTIFFs, meaning you can stream and view it on the fly without downloading the entire file first.

Use the Web App

The MapLibre GL plugin provides a browser-based interface for exploring the Vantor catalog. No server is needed since everything runs client-side.

Search for Events

  1. Open the live demo.

  2. A panel appears in the upper right corner listing available disaster events. Currently the catalog includes events like Typhoon Gaemi and the Spain/Portugal flooding, with more being migrated from the previous Maxar Open Data archive.

  3. Select an event and click Search. The map displays footprints of available imagery: blue for pre-event and red for post-event.

You can filter by phase (pre-event, post-event, or all) using the dropdown before searching. If new events have been added to the catalog, click the Refresh button to pull the latest data.

Visualize Imagery

There are two ways to select imagery for visualization:

The imagery loads directly in the browser using WebGL and the GeoTIFF library. You can layer multiple images and use the layer control to toggle them on and off. This makes it easy to compare pre-event and post-event imagery to assess damage.

Filter by Location

If you only need imagery for a specific area, draw a bounding box on the map before searching. The results will be filtered to show only imagery that intersects your area of interest.

Download Imagery

Once you have selected imagery in the results table, click Download. The browser will prompt you to save the file. Keep in mind that these are high-resolution mosaics, so file sizes can be large (often several gigabytes per image).

Use the QGIS Plugin

The QGIS plugin provides the same functionality within the QGIS desktop environment, with the added benefit of integrating directly with QGIS tools for analysis.

Install the Plugin

  1. Open QGIS and go to Plugins > Manage and Install Plugins.

  2. Search for vantor.

  3. Click Install Plugin.

When you first open the plugin, it may prompt you to install Python dependencies. Click the Install Dependencies button and the plugin will handle the rest.

Search and Visualize

The plugin interface mirrors the web app. Select an event from the dropdown, optionally filter by phase, and click Search. The results table shows available imagery with pre-event (blue) and post-event (red) footprints displayed on the map canvas.

You can select imagery from the table or by clicking footprints on the map. Check the items you want and click Visualize to load them as layers in QGIS. The imagery is streamed as Cloud Optimized GeoTIFFs, so it loads on the fly without downloading the entire file.

If the loaded imagery shows a black background, right-click the layer, open Properties, and set the transparency for the no-data value to zero.

Compare Pre-Event and Post-Event Imagery

For comparing before-and-after imagery, I recommend installing the leafmap plugin (search for leafmap in the Plugin Manager). It provides a swipe tool that lets you drag a divider across the map canvas to reveal one layer on each side. This is particularly useful for assessing flood damage by comparing pre-event satellite imagery with post-event imagery side by side.

To use it:

  1. Install the leafmap plugin from the Plugin Manager.

  2. Load your pre-event and post-event imagery layers.

  3. Open the swipe tool, select the two layers, and click Activate.

  4. Drag the divider left and right to compare.

Filter by Location and Download

Just like the web app, you can draw a bounding box to filter results to a specific area. For downloading, select the imagery you want and click the Download button. The plugin saves the files directly to your computer. Be patient with large files, as individual mosaics can be several gigabytes.

Resources

Both plugins are free and open source. The STAC catalog updates automatically as Vantor releases new imagery for disaster events, so the plugins will always show the latest available data. If you find the QGIS plugin useful, please give it a vote on the QGIS plugin page so more people can discover it. If you run into any issues, feel free to submit them on the GitHub repositories.