GeoEye-1 was launched early September this year. It is the world's highest resolution commercial earth-imaging satellite with a spatial resolution of 43 centimeters.
Now, GeoEye-1 has released this bird's-eye view of Kutztown University in Pennsylvania. This was the first image ever seen by the GeoEye-1, the commercial satellite sponsored by Google.
The 4,300-pound satellite collected the image at noon EDT on October 7 while moving from the north pole to the south pole in a 423-mile-high orbit at 17,000 miles per hour, or 4.5 miles per second. The spacecraft can take photos at a resolution of up to 41 centimeters -- close enough to zoom in on the home plate of a baseball diamond, according to Mark Brender, GeoEye's vice president of communications and marketing.
Even though the GeoEye-1 satellite sports a colorful Google sticker, its key customer is actually not Google but rather the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, a U.S. government agency that analyzes imagery in support of national security. The NGA is paying for half of the development of the $502 million satellite and has committed to purchasing imagery from it. Google is GeoEye's second major partner.
There's one catch for Google: While the GeoEye-1 will provide imagery to the NGA at the maximum resolution of 43 centimeters, Google will only receive images at a 50-centimeter resolution because of a government restriction, Brender explained. However, Google's partnership with GeoEye is exclusive, meaning the search-engine giant will be the only online mapping site using the satellite's photos.
A second satellite, GeoEye-2, slated to launch in 2011 or 2012, will have a resolution of 25cm, company representatives promised. However, Google's satellite imagery will not likely get more detailed because of the 50cm regulation.
[via and via]
Recent Posts
Popular Posts
- Convert UTM (Easting, Northing) to Lat-Long Formats
- GIS Education Submission
- GRASS GIS Free Tutorial
- Mobile Cadastral GIS 3.0 Android App Released in Taiwan
- Free download Worldview-1 imagery / QuickBird satellite images
- Learn ENVI software online - Tutorial guide
- Free Download S-PLUS software Student Edition
- ENVI Band Math Tutorial, Help Guide
- Valtus Imagery Services
- Free SPOT Images now in USGS Archive
0 comments:
Post a Comment