High Resolution Land Satellites

1. SPIN-2 (SPace INformation-2 Meter)
        unclassified Russian military satellite systems, 1998

        - digitized pan photographs
        - an average of 1.56m resolution
        - 40x160km ground coverage
        - 80% overlap between photos and suited to generating DEMs

2. IKONOS-2
        developed by then Space Imaging now GeoEye, launched in 1999

        - up to 26 degree viewing angle, along-track and cross-tract
        - B, G, R, and NIR bands with 4m resolution
        - a pan band with 1m resolution
        - 2048 (11 bits) radiometric resolution
        - 11km swath

3. OrbView-3
        developed by then ORBIMAGE now GeoEye, launched in 2003
        - 4 multispectral bands (B, G, R, IR) with 4m resolution
        - a pan band with 1m resolution
        - 8km swath
        - up to 45degree viewing angle

        Orbview 4, 2001

4. GeoEye-1 (Orbview 5, 2008)
        - 4 multispectral bands (B, G, R, IR) with 1.65m resolution
        - a pan band with 41cm resolution
        - 15.2km swath
        - up to 60degree viewing angle
        - 2048 (11 bits) radiometric resolution                
 
5. QuickBird-2
        developed by then EarthWatch, Inc. now DigitalGlobe lunched in 2001

        - 4 multispectral bands (B, G, R, NIR) with 2.5m resolution
        - a pan band with 0.61m resolution
        - 2048 (11 bits) radiometric resolution
        - 1-5 days temporal resolution
        - up to 25 degree viewing angle along- and cross-tract  

6. EROS
        joint effort by Israel Aircraft Industries and Core Software
Technologies

        - pushbroom scanning
        - panchromatic

        - EROS A: 1.8m resolution, 12.5km swath (year 2000)
        - EROS B: 0.82m resolution, 16km swath
        - up to 45degree viewing angle
        - weekly temporal resolution

7. Hyperspectral satellite systems

Reading: chpt 6
 
 

AVHRR and Meterological Satellite Systems

1. Meteorological Satellites (Metsats)
        coarse spatial resolution, high temporal resolution
   NOAA, GOES, and DMSP

2. Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) (1979-)
        - designed as weather sensors on NOAA satellites
        - become increasingly popular for land oriented applications

   Orbit:
        - sun-synchronous, 98.9o, 833km altitude
        - swath 2400km cross track

   Spectral resolution:
        - band1: 0.58-0.68microm (red)
        - band2: 0.72-1.10microm (near infrared)
        - band3: 3.55-3.93microm (mid infrared/thermal)
        - band4: 10.30-11.3microm (thermal)*
        - band5: 11.50-12.5microm (thermal)*

   Radiometric resolution: 10 bits, 1024 levels of brightness
   Spatial resolution: 1.1km Local Area Coverage (LAC)
                                      4 km global Area Coverage (GAC)
   Temporal resolution: daily

   Data: low cost, public domain distributed by NOAA

   Vegetation Indices
        - Vegetation Index (VI):
                ch2-ch1
        - Normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI):
                NDVI = (ch2-ch1)/(ch2+ch1)

3. Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites
   (GOES)
        - as part of global network of met sats 70^o longitude apart
            around the world, domestic data available since 1975
        - geosynchronous, altitude 36,000km
        - GOES East 75^oW, GOES-West 135^oW
        - a full disk view
        - a visible (day time) 0.55-0.70microm
          4 thermal band (day and night) 3.8-12.5microm
        - 1km spatial resolution for the visible band, and 4,8,4,4km for the thermal bands
        - data are distributed real time

4. Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP)
        - data were available to civilian users since 1973
        - sun-synchronous
        - 0.4-1.1microm (visible & NIR), 8-13microm (thermal)
        - a nighttime visible band, the population map
                volcanoes, oil and gas fields, and forest fires
        - 3km spatial resolution

5. Ocean monitoring satellites
        Nimbus-7, 1978 - 1986
        - Coastal zone Color Scanner (CZCS)
        - swath 1566km, 825m spatial resolution, 6 bands
        - visible bands: phytoplankton concentration, suspended silt
        - NIR: surface vegetation, land/water boundary
        - thermal: sea surface temperature

6. Earth Observing System (EOS)
        Earth Science Enterprise (ESE) formally called Mission to Planet
Earth (MTPE) NASA program

        Terra (EOS-AM), 1999
        Aqua (EOS-PM), 2002

    The major sensor systems
        MODIS, a highly improved successor to AVHRR with
        - greater spatial resolution (250, 500, and 1000m)
        - 36 bands, 4096 radiometric resolution, 2-day interval

        ASTER
        - consists of three instrument systems
                VNIR: visible and NIR
                SWIR: short wave infrared
                TIR: thermal infrared

7. Reading chpt 6.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

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