The RapidEye Geodata Kiosk, opens

RapidEye, the only geospatial solutions provider to own and operate a constellation of five identical Earth Observation satellites, released the German version of their online shop for satellite imagery today – “The RapidEye Geodata Kiosk”.

The RapidEye Geodata Kiosk is an online shop for satellite imagery with ready-to-use data available immediately after purchase. After a secure credit card payment is made, the data is ready to be picked up immediately via secure download.

All data available in the Geodata Kiosk are RapidEye Ortho Products (level 3A); orthorectified, five meter pixel sized imagery from the RapidEye satellite constellation, ready to integrate into any GIS system. In addition to the data for Germany this release also includes the data for 16 free demonstration products for potential customers to test.

“With the RapidEye Geodata Kiosk we have the ability to accommodate satellite imagery requests from almost anybody; from the GIS professional who might want to use the data as background imagery, to value adders, who can derive expert analyses from it, to the university student, as well as to my neighbor who might be looking for an image of Berlin for his home. By using the Internet to distribute our data we will be able to service large and small orders of our satellite imagery easily, quickly and automatically,” commented Wolfgang G. Biedermann, RapidEye's CEO. “With the release of our German version we are getting our 'feet wet', and we ask that everyone try it out so that we can work out any initial problems before we make a big splash with the roll-out of our international version in 2010.”

RapidEye plans to expand the Geodata Kiosk to include data products from around the world, with a dedication to providing continually fresh imagery and making data from almost every country on Earth available to anyone, anywhere at anytime.

“The big benefits for our customers are that they can choose and buy only the area they really need, as no minimum sized area is required and purchases can be made with as little as 50 Euro. Customers instantly get what they order and can choose between different delivery formats, including GeoTIFF and NITF. Re-projection on-the-fly between UTM and geographic coordinate systems is also an option that will appeal to our more knowledgeable customers,” comments Michael W. Prechtel, Head of Marketing and Sales for RapidEye.

The Geodata Kiosk can be accessed through the direct URL www.geodatakiosk.com, or by visiting RapidEye's website at www.rapideye.de. This initial version of the Geodata Kiosk may have minor system difficulties, but will not affect the quality of its data.

The RapidEye Geodata Kiosk is not the only way to obtain RapidEye satellite imagery, nor is the imagery available on the Kiosk all that's available from RapidEye. For the opportunity to purchase millions more square kilometers of Earth as single or multi-temporal datasets, RapidEye's library can be searched either through a local distributor or directly through the RapidEye Customer Service department at sales@rapideye.de. To find a distributor in your area, please visit RapidEye's website at www.rapideye.de/distributors.