HIGH RESOLUTION SATELLITE IMAGE

Figure 20: North Korean Missile Facility Launch April 2009.

Source: GeoEye Inc. Copyright 2009.
 HIGH RESOLUTION SATELLITE IMAGE

Figure 21:GeoEye-1 image of the Imperial Palace, Tokyo.

Source: GRAS
HIGH RESOLUTION SATELLITE IMAGE

Figure 22: Frankfurt Airport from IKONOS 1 km res.

Source: GeoEye Inc. Copyright 2009.
 MEDIUM RESOLUTION SATELLITES (I)

• They are optical sensors , which are only sensitive to the Vis. portion of the EM Spectrum.

• They cannot image in the night or under reduced light.

• They are very ineffective for detailed observation under certain atmospheric tropical conditions.

• Might serve a useful purpose for applications in semi- and arid regions of the World.

• Data application requires a lot of treatment and processing

• They possess weak signals that cannot penetrate tree crowns.

• Examples:

LANDSAT
The era of Landsat satellites started in 1973 with the launch of the first MSS satellite. Since then, the
specifications of the Landsat satellites have improved and data from the ETM+ sensor on Landsat 7
provides 15 m panchromatic data and 30 m multispectral data. A huge archive of data is available,
making Landsat an ideal and cost-effective choice in change detection applications.
 MEDIUM RESOLUTION SATELLITES (II)
SPOT
• Various SPOT sensors are currently in orbit with spatial resolutions from 20 m
(MS) down to 2.5 m (Pan).
• The SPOT archive dates back to 1981 when SPOT-1 was launched and this makes
SPOT an ideal solution for time series analysis.

• SPOT data at 20 m resolution are a cost-effective solution for land cover mapping,
agricultural applications and change detection due to the long history of SPOT
satellite acquisitions.

ASTER
• The ASTER sensor onboard the Terra satellite provides data at various resolutions
from 15 m to 90 m.

• It is capable of producing Digital Elevation Models due to the telescope's

backward viewing band for high-resolution along-track stereoscopic observation.

• ASTER has several thermal infra-red bands that are well suited for vegetation,
climate and geological applications. Data is available since 1999.
 MEDIUM RESOLUTION SATELLITES (III)

IRS
• The primary objective of the IRS satellites is to provide systematic and
repetitive acquisition of data of the Earth’s surface under nearly constant
illumination conditions.

• The IRS satellites provide 5 m panchromatic imagery and 23 m multispectral

imagery as well as large swath imagery at a spatial resolution of 188 m.

NigeriaSat-1
• A passive optical sensor placed at 686 km altitude provides data at 32 m with a
swath width of 600 x 600 km.

• Minimum orbit life is 5 years.

 MEDIUM RESOLUTION IMAGERY

• Medium resolution data sets are characterized by a spatial resolution of 20-100

meters.

• These data sets have a low cost per unit area and are very suitable for
environmental monitoring, agricultural applications and land cover mapping.

• They are used most often in addition to other image data for information
extraction.

• They are mostly used for landuse and landcover applications

 MEDIUM RESOLUTION IMAGERY (I)

• Taking by Landsat
(30 m resolution)

Figure 23: A sectional map of Egypt. Source: NASA

 MEDIUM RESOLUTION IMAGERY (II)

Figure 25: Chronology of change, natural and anthropogenic factors

affecting Lake Chad.
Figure 24: NigeriaSat-1 image showing the Niger Source:
Delta area of Nigeria http://www.gsfc.nasa.gov/gsfc/earth/environ/lakechad/chad.htm