SATELLITES
DigitalGlobe owns and operates the most agile and sophisticated constellation of high-resolution commercial earth imaging satellites. IKONOS, QuickBird, WorldView-1, GeoEye-1, WorldView-2, and WorldView-3 together are capable of collecting over 1 billion km² of quality imagery per year and offering intraday revisits around the globe.
WorldView-2
WorldView-2, launched October 2009, is the first high-resolution 8-band multispectral commercial satellite. Operating at an altitude of 770 kilometers, WorldView-2 provides 46 cm panchromatic resolution and 1.85 meter* multispectral resolution. WorldView-2 has an average revisit time of 1.1 days and is capable of collecting up to 1 million square kilometers of 8-band imagery per day, greatly enhancing the DigitalGlobe multispectral collection capacity for more rapid and reliable collection.
The WorldView-2 system, offering incredible accuracy, agility, capacity and spectral diversity, allows DigitalGlobe to substantially expand its imagery product offerings to both commercial and government customers.
GeoEye-1 set the standard for sub-half meter high-resolution commercial satellite imagery and offers unprecedented spatial resolution. It creates this accuracy by simultaneously acquiring 0.41-meter panchromatic and 1.65-meter multispectral imagery. The satellite can collect up to 700,000 square kilometers of panchromatic imagery per day (and up to 350,000 square kilometers of pan-sharpened multispectral imagery). And because of GeoEye-1’s detail and geospatial accuracy, it can be used to collect imagery in every commercial and government market sector. Due to U.S. Government licensing, commercial customers will receive .50-meter color imagery.
Geoeye-1
The QuickBird satellite is a key part of a constellation of sub-meter spacecraft that DigitalGlobe has developed that offers highly accurate, commercial high-resolution imagery of Earth. DigitalGlobe completed an orbit raise in April of 2011 designed to extend the mission life of the QuickBird sensor. An operational altitude of 482 km was achieved with an expected gradual descent to 450 km by early 2013.
Today, DigitalGlobe’s QuickBird satellite offers sub-meter resolution imagery, high geolocational accuracy, and large on-board data storage.