DATA ACQUISITION SPACEBORNE VHR IMAGES

VHR IMAGES

Very high resolution optical images (e.g. QuickBird, IKONOS, WorldView) have a spatial resolution higher then 2,5m, thereby enabling the identification of single buildings, roads, vehicles, and even individual trees. Applications include urban planning, forestry, agriculture, hydrology and cartography.

 

EUROSENSE offers a wide range of VHR imagery:

 

IKONOS

The launch of the IKONOS satellite in 1999 made history with the world's first one-meter commercial remote sensing satellite. IKONOS produces black-and-white (panchromatic) images with 82-centimeter resolution and multispectral imagery with 4-meter resolution. Imagery from both sensors can be merged to create 1-meter color imagery (pan-sharpened). The more than 300 million square kilometers of imagery that IKONOS has collected over every continent is being used for national security, military mapping, air and marine transportation, and by regional and local governments.

 

IKONOS - 1m - Olympic Winter Games, Vancouver - Canada
IKONOS - 1m - Theran - Iran
Includes material © GeoEye, all rights reserved Includes material © GeoEye, all rights reserved

 

 

GEOEYE

The GeoEye-1 satellite launched in 2008 is the world's highest resolution commercial earth-imaging satellite. GeoEye-1 is equipped with the most sophisticated technology ever used in a commercial satellite system. The GeoEye-1 satellite collects images at nadir with 0.41-meter panchromatic (black & white) and 1.65-meter multispectral (blue, green, red and near infra-red) resolution. The detail and geospatial accuracy of GeoEye-1 imagery further expands applications for satellite imagery in every commercial and government market sector. The positional accuracy is the best of all commercially available satellites, namely 3 meters.

 

GeoEye-1 - 41cm - Athens - Greece GeoEye-1 - 41cm - Rome - Italy
Includes material © GeoEye, all rights reserved Includes material © GeoEye, all rights reserved

 

 

Quickbird

DigitalGlobe's QuickBird satellite provides very high resolution panchromatic and multispectral imagery. QuickBird provides images at 61 cm (panchromatic) and 2,44 m (multispectral) resolution. Its large swath width, combined with ample on‐board storage and geolocational accuracy, allows it to efficiently and accurately image large areas of the globe. The QuickBird spacecraft is capable of acquiring over 75 million square kilometers of imagery data annually.

 

Quickbird - 60cm - Old Head Golf Course, Kinsale - Ireland Quickbird - 60cm - Scranton, Pennsylvania - US
Quickbird Products © DigitalGlobeTM Quickbird Products © DigitalGlobeTM

 

 

WorldView-1

The WorldView-1 satellite, launched by DigitalGlobe, is the first satellite equipped with state‐of‐the‐art control moment gyros, which provide stunning agility, rapid retargeting and efficient in‐track stereo collection. The WorldView1 spacecraft is capable of collecting up to 750 000 square kilometers of 50 cm resolution panchromatic imagery per day. The images are only available in black and white since there is no multispectral sensor on board the satellite.

 

WorldView-1 - 50cm - Inauration, Washington DC -US WorldView-1 - 50cm - Mumbai - India
WorldView-1 Products © DigitalGlobeTM WorldView-1 Products © DigitalGlobeTM

 

 

WorlView-2

WorldView2 is the first commercially available 8band multispectral satellite equipped with state-ofthe-art control moment gyros. It also has high agility, rapid retargeting and efficient intrack stereo collection, plus with its higher elevation, it provides faster revisit times around the globe. The WorldView-2 spacecraft is capable of collecting up to 975 000 square kilometers of 50 cm panchromatic and 2 m 8-band multispectral imagery per day. Beside the four standard bands (blue, green, red & near infrared), the imagery also contains 4 additional colours (red edge, coastal, yellow and near infrared 2).

 

WorldView-2 - 50cm - Baths of Caracalla, Rome - Italy WorldView-2 - 50cm - Abu Dhabi - United Arab Emirates
WorldView-2 Products © DigitalGlobeTM WorldView-2 Products © DigitalGlobeTM

 

 

SPOT5

SPOT 5 was launched on May 4, 2002 and has the goal to ensure continuity of services for customers and to improve the quality of data and images by anticipating changes in market requirements.

SPOT 5 has two high resolution geometrical (HRG) instruments that were deduced from the HRVIR of SPOT 4. They offer a higher resolution of 2.5 to 5 meters in panchromatic mode and 10 meters in multispectral mode. SPOT 5 also features an HRS imaging instrument operating in panchromatic mode. HRS points forward and backward of the satellite. Thus, it is able to take stereopair images almost simultaneously to map relief.

 

SPOT5 - 2.5m -Canberra - Australia
SPOT5 - 5m - Ljubljana - Slovenia
© Cnes 2003 - Distribution Spot Image © Cnes 2003 - Distribution Spot Image

 

 

FORMOSAT-2

FORMOSAT-2 is the first and only high-resolution satellite with a daily revisit capability. The spatial resolution of FORMOSAT-2 - 2 meters in panchromatic (black & white) and 8 meters in multispectral (colour) mode - is an additional asset for surveillance. Ideally suited to strategic and operational intelligence missions, it is able to identify and characterize military sites, naval bases, air bases and refugee camps; perform reconnaissance of ships, aircraft and other assets; and surveillance of strategic or industrial facilities. FORMOSAT-2's blue spectral band allows to produce natural-colour composites without special processing.

 

FORMOSAT-2 - 2m - Paris - France FORMOSAT-2 - 8m - Mokpo - South Korea

© NSPO 2006 - Distribution Spot Image

© NSPO 2005 - Distribution Spot Image

 

 

KOMPSAT-2

The very high resolution satellite KOMPSAT-2 acquires imagery in black and white (panchromatic band) at a resolution of 1 m and in colour (multispectral bands) across 4 bands in the visible (red, green, blue and near-infrared) at a resolution of 4 m. Simultaneous acquisition of panchromatic and multispectral images means that merged 1-m images are available as a standard product. KOMPSAT-2 images cover a footprint of 15 km x 15 km.

 

KOMPSAT-2 - 1m - Sydney Olympic Park - Australia KOMPSAT-2 - 4m - Durrat al Bahrain - Bahrain
© KARI 2006 - Distribution Spot Image © KARI 2007 - Distribution Spot Image

 

Interested in satellite data or its derived products and services? We can help you in defining the images that best fit your specific needs and can offer you additional services, assuring you the best use of the imagery for your daily activities.