List of Remote Sensing Land Imaging Satellites

This report is posted to make the ASPRS members and the broader remote sensing user community aware of just how ubiquitous imaging the Earth from space has become due to the technical advances that have enabled the creation of multi-spectral mid resolution RS satellites for as little as $10 to 20 Million.

– There are 13 countries that have mid to high resolution remote sensing satellites in orbit.
– By the end of the decade there will be 20.

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, 25 planned
–Radar, 3 in orbit, 9 planned

•There are two major resolution groups
–18 high resolution systems ( 0.5 to 1.8 meter)
–44 mid resolution systems ( 2.0 to 36 meter)

•They have greatly different coverage capabilities.
–Hi-res swaths are in the 8 to 28 kilometer range
–Mid-res swaths are generally between 70 to 185 kilometers except for the DMC’s 600 Km swaths

•There are four privately funded systems in orbit, 3 US and 1 Israeli, all focused on the hi-res military market. A 5th commercial system, RapidEye of Germany, recently reached its financial goal and plans to serve broad area applications.

•The planned European satellites are labeled “Dual Purpose”meaning that their data will serve both military and civil users.

See document below: