WorldView


 
Artist's impression of WorldView satellites
 
 
WorldView-1 and 2 are commercial, very high resolution optical satellites belonging to the company DigitalGlobe.
 
WorldView-1 was launched on 18 September 2007 and WorldView-2 on 8 October 2009. Both were launched on Delta 7920 rockets from the Vandenberg Air Force Base. WorldView-1 is foreseen to last until 2018, while WorldView-2 is planned to last until 2017.

Both have a sun-synchronous orbit and descend over the equator during each orbit at 10:30 am. WorldView-1 orbits at an altitude of 496 km, has an orbital period of 94.6 minutes, with an average revisit time of 1.7 days. It carries a panchromatic imaging sensor. WorldView-2 orbits at an altitude of 770 km. has an orbital period of 100 minutes and carries a multispectral imaging sensor.
 
 
   
True color, WorldView-2 satellite image of "The Pearl"
 
The sensor on WorldView-1 images points on the ground at a sampling distance of 0.50 metres at nadir and 0.59 metres at an off-nadir angle of 25 degrees along track enabling stereo imaging. The swath width of the sensor is 17.6 km at nadir. The sensor on WorldView-2 has a spatial sampling of 1.85 metres and acquires imagery in 8 different bands.

The main applications for the WoldView satellites are very high resolution mapping, change detection and stereo 3D imaging.
 
 
  
Last update: 27 January 2011


Earth observation satellites

 •  Introduction (http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Eduspace_EN/SEM7YN6SXIG_0.html)
 •  Landsat (http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Eduspace_EN/SEMHB04Z2OF_0.html)
 •  ERS (http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Eduspace_EN/SEMFZ04Z2OF_0.html)
 •  RESURS (http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Eduspace_EN/SEMQ614Z2OF_0.html)
 •  Envisat (http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Eduspace_EN/SEMR314Z2OF_0.html)
 •  SPOT (http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Eduspace_EN/SEMIW04Z2OF_0.html)

Meteorological satellites

 •  Meteosat (http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Eduspace_EN/SEM6BY3Z2OF_0.html)
 •  Meteosat Second Generation (http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Eduspace_EN/SEMTNY3Z2OF_0.html)
 •  MetOp (http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Eduspace_EN/SEMS1O6SXIG_0.html)
 •  NOAA (http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Eduspace_EN/SEMDQY3Z2OF_0.html)

Earth Explorer satellites

 •  Introduction (http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Eduspace_EN/SEMUYN6SXIG_0.html)
 •  GOCE (http://www.esa.int/esaLP/LPgoce.html)
 •  SMOS (http://www.esa.int/esaLP/LPsmos.html)
 •  CryoSat-2 (http://www.esa.int/esaLP/LPcryosat.html)

Commercial high resolution optical satellites

 •  IKONOS (http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Eduspace_EN/SEMI714Z2OF_0.html)
 •  QuickBird (http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Eduspace_EN/SEMZ814Z2OF_0.html)

Related links

 •  WorldView - Technical details (http://esamultimedia.esa.int/docs/eduspace/WorldView-table.pdf)
 •  DigitalGlobe (http://www.digitalglobe.com/index.php/82/Content+Collection+Systems)