COMMERCIAL REMOTE SENSING PROGRAMS

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COMMERCIAL REMOTE- SENSING PROGRAMS

• BY
• DARYL MCCORMICK

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OVERVIEW

• About Commercial Remote Sensing
• IKONOS
• LANDSAT
• SPOT

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About Commercial Remote Sensing

• Many users from large corporate land developers,
  to recreational big-game hunters
• Before remote sensing developed a commercial
  market, the worlds militaries had a virtual
  monopoly on remote sensing

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IKONOS

• Launched on September 24th 1997
• The worlds first commercial high-resolution
  satellite
• Capability to collect 1-metre panchromatic and
  4-metre multi-spectral imagery
• Circular, Sun-synchronous, Near-polar orbit

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IKONOS CONT

• Type of orbit guarantees virtual full coverage of
  the Earth
• The sensor can be inclined to acquire imagery up
  to 700km either side of the track (maximum
  incidence angle of 26 degrees)
• Capability to revisit any area on the Earth every
  1.5 days (with varying resolution)

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LANDSAT

• Space segment includes two imaging satellites
  (LANDSAT 4 and 5)
• Near-polar, Sun-synchronous, Circular orbit with
  an altitude of approximately 438 miles
• Control segment is commercially operated by Space
  Imaging Corp

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LANDSAT CONT

• LANSAT imagery revealed that oil dumped into the
  Persian Gulf by Iraq traveled 150 miles from
  Kuwait in three weeks, extensively polluting
  Saudi Arabian beaches and waters

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SPOT

• Developed by the French government
• S.P.O.T stands for Satellite Probatoire d
  Observation de la Terre
• Advantages of SPOT over LANDSAT include higher
  ground resolution, increased revisit capability,
  and possible stereo recording of a spectral scene
  from neighboring orbits

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SPOT CONT

• Disadvantages of SPOT compared to LANDSAT include
  fewer spectral bands, and the uncertainty of
  product availability during periods of increased
  political tension or crisis
• SPOT imagery of the nuclear power plant disaster
  at Chernobyl was shown extensively on TV

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CONCLUSION

• About Commercial Remote Sensing in General
• IKONOS
• LANDSAT
• SPOT