First Photos from Next-Generation Satellite Capture Half-Meter Views of Houston, Yokohama, and Addis Ababa
DigitalGlobe, provider of the world’s highest-resolution commercial satellite imagery and geospatial information products, today revealed the first images from WorldView-1, the highest resolution, most agile commercial satellite ever flown. WorldView-1 was successfully launched on September 18 from Vandenberg Air Force Base and has been undergoing a routine calibration and check-out period. DigitalGlobe expects WorldView-1 to be fully operational and delivering imagery products by the end of the year if not sooner. DigitalGlobe is the only company operating a constellation of sub-meter commercial imaging satellites and in late 2008, will complete WorldView-2 which will provide eight bands of multi-spectral data for life-like true color imagery.
“The quality and resolution of WorldView-1’s first images is demonstrative of the superior level of imagery and geospatial information we expect to deliver to our customers,” said Jill Smith, chief executive officer of DigitalGlobe. “Knowing that the satellite continues to undergo final calibration in the coming weeks, we expect the quality of WorldView-1’s imagery to improve even more.”
WorldView-1’s first images include half-meter snapshots from:
• Houston, Texas, USA acquired October 2, 2007
• Yokohama, Japan acquired October 5, 2007
• Addis Ababa, Ethiopia acquired October 5, 2007
WorldView-1, built by Ball Aerospace and Technologies Corporation with the imaging sensor provided by ITT Corporation, is a high-capacity, panchromatic imaging system featuring half-meter resolution imagery. With an average revisit time of 1.7 days, WorldView-1 is capable of collecting up to 750,000 square kilometers (290,000 square miles) per day of half-meter imagery. Frequent revisits increase image collection opportunities, enhance change detection applications and enable accurate map updates. The satellite is capable of collecting, storing and downlinking more frequently updated global imagery products than any other commercial imaging satellite in orbit, allowing for expedited image capture, processing and delivery to customers where speed is a driving factor. WorldView-1 is equipped with state-of-the-art geo-location accuracy capability and exhibits unprecedented agility with rapid targeting and efficient in-track stereo collection.
About DigitalGlobe
Longmont, Colo.-based DigitalGlobe (http://www.digitalglobe.com) is the clear leader in the global commercial Earth imagery and geospatial information market as well as the only company operating a constellation of sub-meter commercial imaging satellites. The company’s technical superiority and innovation, unparalleled commitment to customer service, extensive business partner network and open systems philosophy make DigitalGlobe the preferred supplier of imagery products to government and commercial markets. DigitalGlobe is the only geospatial content provider to take an end-to-end approach to geospatial imagery, from acquiring proprietary high-resolution images through a leading-edge satellite and aerial network, to integrating and distributing that data through GlobeXplorer, a proprietary web-based search and retrieval system that makes it easy to find, purchase and download global imagery. DigitalGlobe currently operates the world’s highest-resolution commercial satellite constellation with QuickBird and the first of two next-generation satellites, WorldView-1. The company plans to complete construction of its second next-generation satellite, WorldView-2 in late 2008. The company’s updated and growing ImageLibrary contains more than three hundred million square kilometers of satellite and aerial imagery suited to countless applications for people who map, view, navigate and study the earth.