Spot Image JP - Spot Image - exclusive civil and commercial operator of the Pleiades satellites

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Spot Image - exclusive
civil and commercial operator
of the Pleiades satellites

Spot Image signed a delegated public service agreement on 15 January, after the French space agency CNES, making it the official and exclusive worldwide distributor of data from the Pleiades satellites.

With the Pleiades constellation of 2 very-high-resolution satellites—Pleiades-HR1A and Pleiades-HR1B—Spot Image will bring you 50-cm imagery with a ground footprint of 20 km x 20 km.

Project milestones

	Pleiades benefits

Each Pleiades satellites will offer:

daily revisits to any point on the globe
50-cm products
4 spectral bands (blue, green, red and infrared)
imaging swath of 20 km at nadir
single-pass collection of mosaics with a footprint of 100 km x 100 km
near-real-time stereo and tri-stereo acquisition with a 20 km x 280 km footprint
daily coverage of 1,600,000 sq.km.
exceptional image location accuracy, better than 7 m without ground control points (CE90) for optimal integration in a GIS

Increased acquisition capacity

Thanks to its great agility, Pleiades will ensure a minimum of tasking conflicts to better meet all users’ needs.
And to give you even more responsiveness, we will be uploading satellite workplans 3 times a day.

This means users in all of the world’s major regions will be able to submit requests for imagery only hours before acquisition by the Pleiades satellites. This unique tasking system will be operated through 3 ground stations in the Kerguelen Islands, Kiruna (Sweden) and Toulouse (France).

	Agility to meet your needs

Grobal coverage of your areas of interest

Pleiades will offer rapid revisits to any point on the globe:

In 2 days with 1 satellite
Every day with 2 satellites





Example of areas covered with a single satellite every day with sensors viewing 30° off track





Example of areas covered with 2 satellites every day with sensors viewing 30° off track

Main features

Data acquisition:

450 images per day, per satellite on average
1 acquisition mode:
Simultaneous panchromatic + multispectral acquisition.

Agility:

Roll :
- 5° in 8 seconds
- 10° in 10 seconds
- –30° to +30° in 25 seconds
Along-track stereo and tri-stereo viewing
Single-pass mosaic collection

Agility to cover large areas

The diagram below shows the satellite’s ability to image an area of 1,000 km x 1,000 km, in a single pass, viewing about 20 spots with its sensors pointed less than 20° off track.

Real-time imaging capability:

Example: a commercial mission in Europe might cover:
> 40 spots of a diameter of 20 km covered in 1 orbit
> Over an area of interest of 1,000 km x 1,000 km

Pleiades can image an area of 1,000 km x 1,000 km in a single pass, viewing about 20 spots with its sensors pointed less than 20° off track.

Agility to cover small areas

The diagram below shows the satellite’s ability to image a crisis point in a single pass. The results are obtained with a maximum authorized viewing angle of 20°.

Real-time imaging capability

A crisis theatre of operations might cover:
> 30 spots of a diameter of 20 km
> Over an area of interest of 100 km x 200 km

Pleiades can image an area of 100 km x 200 km in a single pass, viewing about 10 spots with its sensors pointed less than 20° off track.

Agility for stereo imaging

One of the main innovations of Pleiades is its ability to acquire high-resolution stereo imagery. Stereopairs are collected in a single pass, which means a uniform product is quickly available.

As shown below, in addition to “standard” stereopair collection—2 images with an adjustable base/height (B/H) ratio—the system offers a tri-stereo acquisition capability with an extra near-nadir view to give you an image with full stereoscopic detail.





Maximum strip length for stereo and tri-stereo imaging according to required B/H ratio

Agility for real-time mosaic collection

Pleiades’ great agility also affords the ability to extend its imaging swath artificially and instantaneously.

The table below shows imaging swaths that can be achieved according to the user-defined sensor viewing angle.

Pleiades products

Imagery products	- 50-cm black and white - 50-cm colour - 2-m multispectral - Mosaic
Spectral bands

Preprocessing levels	- Sensor - Ortho
Image location accuracy	With ground control points Without ground control points	1 m < 7 m
Imaging capacity	Daily constellation capacity Mosaic collection Stereo imaging Max. spots over 100 km x 200 km	3,200,000 sq.km. 100 km x 100 km 20 km x 280 km 30 (crisis mode)

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