RapidEye images first public release

The first public release of a RapidEye image is being unveiled today on the company's website. This demonstration image highlights the capabilities of RapidEye imagery in many market segments, by showing diverse landscapes that include agricultural fields, forests, cities and roads.

“Our customers have been waiting for this moment for a long time,” stated Michael Prechtel, RapidEye's Head of Marketing and Sales, “Requests keep coming in, and our own internal team has been waiting for imagery to test the various service modules being developed. If everything stays on schedule, we will be able to start delivering in December.”

The image shows the area of El Bolsón in Argentina near the Argentinian-Chilean border. El Bolsón is situated in the far southwest of the Río Negro Province in Argentina at the foot of the Piltriquitron Mountain.

The image was recorded by RapidEye's camera built by Jena-Optronik of Jena, Germany from the satellite RapidEye # 1, named Choros, at a nadir view angle and has a pixel size of 5 meters. It was downloaded to KSAT (Kongsberg Satellite Services) in Svalbard, Norway and electronically transmitted to the RapidEye headquarters in Brandenburg, Germany.

“We are very pleased about the quality of this image,” commented Pietro Widmer, RapidEye's Head of Operations and Engineering, “This is an important step and we will continue with commissioning the processing systems built by MDA (MacDonald Dettwiler and Associates Ltd.) and initiate the crucial image calibration activities of all five satellites to ensure we will deliver to our customers only top quality data and services.”

The commissioning and calibration phase that the RapidEye system is currently undergoing is expected to last into December, allowing for commercial operations to start by the end of this year. At that time RapidEye plans to have radiometrically corrected and orthorectified demonstration datasets available for download on the company website. They will include all accompanying metadata files.

For a closer look at the image of El Bolsón, Argentina, visit the RapidEye website.