Satellite Imagery FAQ 4/5

This document is part of the Satellite Imagery FAQ

Satellite Information

ADEOS

ADEOS was successfully launched on August 17th, 1996. Information from the NASDA Front Page at http://www.nasda.go.jp

Almaz

Russian SAR imagery, ground resolution believed to be up to 15m. Images approx 40Km square. Available in four standard levels. Product details are at http://gds.esrin.esa.it/Ceuri.almaz.

ERS-1

ERS-1, the first European Remote Sensing Satellite, was launched by ESA in July 1991.

Stop press: reorganisation of Esrin's pages invalidates former links under "services". GDS links, including the ERS-1 mission front page at http://gds.esrin.esa.it/Ceuro_ers still work.

This now includes ERS-1 FAQ, mission information, applications & bibliography, imagery and services. Further information, including Earth Observation Quarterly continue to be available through http://services.esrin.esa.it.

Online browsing of ERS-1 SAR images is available through Esrin's Multi-Mission Browse Service (MMBS) at http://tracy.esrin.esa.it:8001/www/

For ground station availability, see http://sloth.esrin.esa.it/gsstatus.html

Reference:
ERS User Handbook, esa SP-1148, ed. Bruce Battrick ISSN 0379-6566 ISBN 92-9092-029-7 published by ESA-ESTEC, Nordwijk, NL.

ERS-2

Extensive set of WWW pages unveiled just before the April 21st Launch under http://services.esrin.esa.it/ including daily reports during calibration phase. The new GOME equipment is described under http://gds.esrin.esa.it/Ccal_val_gome.

ATSR (Along Track Scanning Radiometer - ERS 1 and 2)

Homepage at http://www.atsr.rl.ac.uk/

IRS-1C

IRS-1C was launched successfully on December 28th, 1995. Information is available from the homepage at http://www.stph.net:80/nrsa/.

Information posted by Nick Rollings and (nrolling@METZ.UNE.EDU.AU) and Guy Pierre (GP@scotc.cnes.fr); reformated with possible errors by me:

IRS-1C charactersitics

		 PAN		 LISS-III                     WIFS

Type          Pushbroom         Pushbroom		   Whisk-broom

Quantisation     64               128				128

repeat cycle     24                24				5 off-nadir
  days

Swath (km)       70               142				810

Spatial Res.(m)  5.8              23.5 (B2-4) 70.5 (B5)		188

Spectral Bands B1 0.50-0.75 B2 0.52-0.59 B3 0.62-0.68 B4 0.77-0.86 B5 1.55-1.70
(source: Australian Centre for Remote Sensing ACRES)

- the PAN camera is a high resolution (5.8m) single band sensor
(0.5-0.75 microns) with ground swath of 70 kms. It can be steered
up to +/- 26 degrees for obtaining stereoscopic data and 5 day
revisit.
- IRS-1C has an on-board recorder allowing to store 24 minutes of
data, over half a swath (35 km) in PAN mode
(Source: INTERFACE bulletin from the NRSA data centre)

JERS-1

Japanese Earth Resources Satellite -1
NASDA's WWW page on this satellite is at http://hdsn.eoc.nasda.go.jp/guide/guide/satellite/satdata/jers_e.html and includes brief details & a couple of images.

Sensor Characteristics

http://gds.esrin.esa.it/CEURI.APP3.JERS1

OPS (Optical) Imagery - Online Browse

http://tracy.esrin.esa.it:8001/www/

KOSMOS

Russian imagery; currently the highest spatial resolution of any available. The KVR-1000 camera produces imagery at up to 2-meter resolution (panchromatic). There are online samples at http://cen.cenet.com/htmls/d2/sate.htm.

A fine sample in the Eurimage 1995 calender shows KVR-1000 combined with Landsat TM to give the effect of ultra-high-resolution colour imagery. The TK-350 camera offers 10-meter resolution, and stereo capabilities.

Technical information on the net is (AFAIK) sparse, but Ivan Krasnyj (ivan@krasnyj.spb.su at the time) posted the following:

   TK-350   (Topographic  Camera)     has     high      measuring
characteristics. The images obtained  by  this  camera  have 10 m
ground resolution, average  scale  is  1:660000,  image  size  is
30x45 cm, one image covers the area 200x300 km, and  longitudinal
stereoscopic overlap is 60% or 80%.
   Stereoscopic overlap of TK-350 camera  images  (maximum  value
of B/H ratio is close to 1)  provides  the  obtaining  of  ground
relief mean error of 7 m, which is more  better  than  for  other
existing systems.
   The image can be enlarged up to 1:50000 scale.

   KVR-1000.
   KVR-1000 (High  Resolution  Camera)  can  work  together  with
TK-350 and provides the obtaining of the images with 2  m  ground
resolution, 1:220000 average scale, image size is 18x18  cm,  and
one image covers area  40x40  km.  Camera  works  in panchromatic
spectral range. The materials obtained by means of  KVR-1000  let
one to  perform  the  detailed  identification  of  the  area  of
shooting. The images can be enlarged up to 1:10000 scale  without
significant loss of quality, which makes possible  to  create  on
their basis photomaps, photoplans and  other  products  of  scale
1:10000 and smaller.

   Joint use of photo  materials  made  by  TK-350  and  KVR-1000
cameras together with the numerical measuring  parameters,  which
are registered at the moment of  shooting,  let  one  to  perform
photogrammetric  processing  and   to   create  topographic   and
photomaps of 1:50000  scale  and  smaller.   It  is  possible  to
create maps practically  of  any  region  of  the  Earth surface,
including the territories, where  geodetic reference  network  is
unavailable.

   Images can be delivered in the form of film, paper  print  and
as digital data.

Landsat

Landsat's mission is "to provide for repetitive acquisition of high resolution multispectral data of the earth's surface on a global basis". Landsat is the "classic" Earth Observation satellite, dating back to 1972. The MSS (Multispectral Scanner) instrument provides visible/infrared imagery at 80m resolution; the TM (Thematic Mapper), first deployed on Landsat 4 in 1982, improves this to 20-30m.

Comprehensive guides are available at http://sun1.cr.usgs.gov/glis/hyper/guide/landsat.

http://sun1.cr.usgs.gov/glis/hyper/guide/landsat_tm.

World-map based WWW browsing of Landsat TM imagery is available from http:tracy.esrin.esa.it:8001/www/ or http://www.coresw.com.

1982-1985 TM, and 1972-1992 MSS data are available at reduced prices from USGS. See http://sun1.cr.usgs.gov/glis/hyper/news/tm.html. See also the Landsat Pathfinder, at http://pathfinder-www.sr.unh.edu/pathfinder/

Meteosat

Meteosat homepage is at http://gds.esrin.esa.it/Cmeteosat

Nimbus

Description and imagery at http://gds.esrin.esa.it/CNIMBUS

(AFAIK) most noted for the CZCS ocean colour and other marine maps. This data is available in a variety of net locations and on CDROM. See the SeaWiFS project's pages at http://seawifs.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEAWIFS/IMAGES/CZCS.html

NOAA Polar Orbiting Environmental Satellites (POES)

This long-running (1978-) series of satellites carry the AVHRR instrument. A passive visible/infrared instrument imaging a broad (2400Km) swath, this is the most widely used of any in large-area (including continental and global scale) Earth Observation.

A very comprehensive collection listing sources for data, information, technical reference, and describing applications is actively maintained by FAQ co-author Wim Bakker at http://www.itc.nl/~bakker/noaa.html

There is a comprehensive technical guide to AVHRR imagery at http://sun1.cr.usgs.gov/glis/hyper/guide/avhrr.

Sources for AVHRR data on the net are numerous - here are a few:

(near) real-time: (see also Weather Pics)

http://www.rsmas.miami.edu/images.html

Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science "Global Satellite Imagery"
Datasets (see also Whole-World Images)

http://sun1.cr.usgs.gov/landdaac/landdaac.html

USGS/EDC Land DAAC

http://atlas.esrin.esa.it:8000/
Global AVHRR 1KM Server from ESA/ESRIN.

http://shark1.esrin.esa.it/

Ionia browser from ESA/ESRIN

http://daac.gsfc.nasa.gov/CAMPAIGN_DOCS/BRS_SRVR/avhrrbrs_main.html

Land Pathfinder from NASA/GSFC.

http://podaac-www.jpl.nasa.gov/sst

SST Pathfinder from NASA/JPL

http://pegasus.nesdis.noaa.gov/pathfinder.html

Atmosphere pathfinder from NOAA

http://www.saa.noaa.gov/

NOAA Satellite Active Archive (DAAC)

http://geochange.er.usgs.gov/pub/magsst/magsst.html

Modern Average Global Sea Surface Temperature (USGS)

http://fermi.jhuapl.edu/avhrr/

Ocean Remote Sensing Group of the Johns Hopkins University / Applied Physics Laboratory.

http://www.xmission.com/~idi/usfs.htm

The USA from Space

RADARSAT

Canadian Space Agency's major Earth Observation satellite, due for 1995 launch. Pending a proper entry here, see their homepage at http://adro.radar1.sp-agency.ca/adrohomepage.html. It's good and comprehensive, but slow!

Another introduction is available from CCRS, at http://www.ccrs.nrcan.gc.ca/ccrs/radarsat/rsate.html

December 1995: Radarsat Imagery is now online from MDA at http://www.mda.ca/radarsat/

RESURS

Resurs imagery represents an important intermediate between the high spatial resolution of TM or SPOT and the high coverage of AVHRR or ATSR. A good writeup of this satellite available from SSC at http://www.ssc.se/ssc/sb/resurs.html

An Inventory/browse service is available from Eurimage, at http://www.eurimage.it/einet/einet_home.html.

SeaStar

Ocean colour monitoring satellite; successor to CZCS(Nimbus). SeaWiFS - High temporal and spectral resolution optical instrument.

Comprehensive information on homepage at http://seawifs.gsfc.nasa.gov/scripts/SEAWIFS.html.

Shuttle

The principal Earth Observation missions (AFAIK) are Imaging Radar. There is also a collection of Earth Observation imagery at NASA/JSC http://images.jsc.nasa.gov/html/home.htm

Shuttle Imaging Radar

Spaceborne Imaging Radar-C/X-Band Synthetic Aperture Radar
The most recent Shuttle Imaging Radar mission is a joint venture of NASA and the German and Italian national space agencies. It is equipped with an advanced imaging radar operating at three different wavelengths, and a variable viewing angle. SIR-C missions took place in April and October 1994. It is well covered by several good webpages, including:

NASA JPL have an excellent imaging radar homepage at http://southport.jpl.nasa.gov/, the serious contents of which is at http://southport.jpl.nasa.gov/scienceapps.html. Links from this page include information and browse images, and also an interactive bulletin board (nice)! for discussion of imaging radar.
DLR have a SIR-C/X-SAR page http://www.op.dlr.de/ne-hf/SRL.html, containing general and mission information and online imagery, and an excellent description.
USGS/EDC have a SIR-C/X-SAR page at http://sun1.cr.usgs.gov/landdaac/sir-c/sir-c.html, with general information and browse facility.

There is also a new browser at http://ic-www.arc.nasa.gov/ic/projects/bayes-group/Atlas/Earth/. However, it refused to serve me images: someone tell me whether it's broken or whether I have a problem?

Shuttle Handheld Photography

Information and imagery is available from JSC at http://eol.jsc.nasa.gov/sseop.html.

Satellite Pour L'Observation de la Terre (SPOT)

The French SPOT satellites provide high-resolution visual/infrared Earth Observation imagery. At 10m (Panchromatic) / 20m (Multispectral), SPOT imagery offers higher resolution than the major alternative Landsat. In addition, SPOT is the leading provider of stereoscopic (3-dimensional) imagery.

Spot is on the Web at two apparently identical sites: http://www.spotimage.fr and http://www.spot.com. There is a comprehensive technical guide to SPOT at http://sun1.cr.usgs.gov/glis/hyper/guide/spot.

Browsing SPOT imagery can be challenging (but check out http://www.coresw.com/.

For the time being, Spot Image's DALI catalogue system is no longer accessible through IDN, as previously reported here. It is available on WWW through SPOT's websites on payment of a fee, or by X29 connection. As usual, Wim Bakker tracked down the currently valid information:

To be complete:

OLD X29 numbers:
        -(2080)31001232
        -(2080)310012323
        -(2080)3100123203

NEW X29 numbers:
        -(2080)31081141
        -(2080)310811413
        -(2080)31081141303

For me the following command on a VAX/VMS works for connecting to DALI:

        $set host/x29 02080310811413

Username and password (as used by the CEOS-IDN "LINK") QLEMAST and MASTER
still work!

(the IDN presumably *could* gateway to the new X29 numbers and thus reinstate the service as previously described)

TOPEX/POSEIDON

Details and imagery at the homepage http://topex-www.jpl.nasa.gov/

Sea-Surface Height Map - an interactive browser is available at http://www.ccar.colorado.edu/~hendricj/topexssh.html

Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM)

See http://ame.gsfc.nasa.gov/tsdis/tsdis.html