A GEOGRAPHERS GUIDE TO LAND IMAGING SATELLITES

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A GEOGRAPHERS GUIDE TO LAND IMAGING
SATELLITES

• W.E. STONEY
• Mitretek Systems
• Wstoney_at_mitretek.org
• UPDATED 5/25/04

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INTRODUCTION

• This guide includes all civil land imaging
  satellites with resolutions equal to or better
  than 36 meters in orbit or currently planned to
  be in orbit by 2010.
• Optical, 26 in orbit, 21 planned
• Radar, 3 in orbit, 9 planned,
• There are two major resolution groups
• 19 high resolution systems ( 0.5 to 1.8 meter)
• 40 mid resolution systems ( 2.0 to 36 meter)
• They have greatly different coverage
  capabilities.
• Hi-res swaths are in the 10 to 20 kilometer range
• Mid-res swaths are generally between 120 to 185
  kilometers except for the DMCs 600 Km swaths
• History shows that not all of the planned
  satellites will be launched and few will launch
  within 6 months to a year of their planned dates.
• Only 10 satellites are privately funded, 4 US, 2
  Israeli, and 4 German. The current private
  systems depend heavily on military sales.
• The planned European satellites are labeled Dual
  Purpose meaning that their data will serve both
  military and civil users.
• Acknowledgements This survey was initiated under
  contracts with NASA and the USGS in support of
  the 1995 ASPRS Satellite Conference. NOAA
  supported development of a web site and an
  updating in the 2002 period. (http//commavail.noa
  a.gov/controlcenter.cfm?ft0 Subsequent updates
  have been pro-bono.

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DATA AVAILABILITY

• Satellites are of little scientific use if
• They are not programmed to routinely acquire a
  significant of the land they pass over.
• The data are not archived and a meta data base
  made available to all.
• The data calibration is not maintained and
  provided the user.
• The data are not available with unlimited
  distribution rights to the scientific community
  at the cost of reproduction or less
• Landsat 7 is currently the only satellite that
  meets all of these requirements.
• It is programmed to acquire about 2/3 of the
  cloud-free land it passes over with the goal of
  four global data sets per year.
• All of the data are archived, their calibrations
  maintained and their specifications advertised by
  the USGS.
• All of the data are available for unlimited use
  for the cost of reproduction.
• Note The recent scanning problem on Landsat 7 is
  not crippling for most uses. It acts like a
  persistent 25 cloud cover that can be shifted on
  each pass..

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THE LANDSAT FAMILYBROAD AREA COVERAGE

• For geographers interested in understanding land
  cover and land use change on the global, regional
  and continental scales the broad area coverage
  multispectral satellites similar to Landsat will
  be the most useful.
• There are currently 14 satellites in orbit that
  together could provide nearly daily
  mid-resolution global land coverage
• Landsats 5 and 7
• IRS C D, ResourceSat-1
• CBERS 1 2
• SPOTs 2 4 5
• DMC AlSat-1 BilSat NigeriaSat Uksat
• The long pursued German commercial RapidEye 5
  satellite system recently announced completion of
  its financing. With its 6.5 meter 5 VNIR bands
  and weekly coverage it could be a major science
  tool
• If they are to be scientifically useful the
  science community must aggressively pursue data
  interpretation comparability and cal/val studies.

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A GUIDE TO THE GUIDE

• Table by best resolution
• Could be titled the rush to hi-resolution and
  radar
• Note that there are no US radar satellites
• Hi-Res schedule
• Note that 8 countries are involved and the very
  aggressive plans for 1 meter radar in Europe
• Mid-Res schedule
• There are 17 countries funding satellites.
• Germanys RapidEye is the only commercial system
• Number of Optical satellites
• To help the number counters among you.
• The fall off may be primarily due to the normal
  reluctance to make long range plans.
• Sensor characteristics
• Provides the number, location and resolution and
  swaths of the optical sensor bands and the
  resolution, swath ranges and bands of the radars
• Note that all the foreign Landsat-like systems
  carry 2 or more sensors, one of which is wide
  field of view
• Spatial coverage
• Illustrates the scene coverage relative to
  Landsats 185 x 170 Km scene. Chart courtesy of
  the USGS
• Spectral coverage
• Shows the spectral location and range of the
  bands

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Spatial Coverage
Landsat
ASTER, 1/2SPOT
QuickBird
IKONOS
OrbView-3
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