I may be interested in purchasing the professional version of Google Earth to look at a mountainous region of India.
1) How close to the ground would I be able to view? 2) How close is the view to real time?
You can't check the exact altitude because the height of the mountains increases and decreases, but you can zoom to a level where the scale on the map is set to 20meters. You can check this information going to the Google Maps while switching to satellite. Zoom in at maximum and then you will see exactly how much you can see and the level of zoom.