New Google maps satellite

[Modelworks]

Looks like google maps just got an upgrade !


http://launch.geoeye.com/LaunchSite/about/

some facts:

Resolution

GeoEye-1 will have the highest resolution of any commercial imaging system and be able to collect images with a ground resolution of 0.41-meters or 16 inches in the panchromatic or black and white mode. It will collect multispectral or color imagery at 1.65-meter resolution or about 64 inches, a factor of two better than existing commercial satellites with four-band multispectral imaging capabilities. While the satellite will be able to collect imagery at 0.41-meters, GeoEye's operating license from the U.S. Government requires re-sampling the imagery to 0.5-meter for all customers not explicitly granted a waiver by the U.S. Government.

Accuracy

Besides unsurpassed spatial resolution of 0.41-meters or about 16 inches, GeoEye-1 is designed to be able to offer three-meter geolocation accuracy, which means that customers can map natural and man-made features to within three meters (about 9 feet) of their actual location on the surface of the Earth without ground control points. This degree of inherent accuracy has never been achieved in any commercial imaging system and will remain unchallenged even when next-generation commercial systems are launched in the coming years.

Agility

GeoEye-1, a polar-orbiting satellite, will be able to revisit any point on Earth once every three days or sooner. Though it stands two stories high and weighs more than two tons, GeoEye-1 is designed to deftly train the ITT camera on multiple targets during a single orbital pass and is able to rotate or swivel forward, backward or side-to-side with robotic precision. This unrivaled agility will enable it to collect much more imagery during a single pass.

Frequency

GeoEye-1 will make 15 orbits per day flying at an altitude of 681 kilometers or 423 miles with an orbital velocity of about 7.5 km/sec or 16,800 mi/hr. Its sun-synchronous orbit allows it to pass over a given area at about 10:30 a.m. local time every day. Given its altitude and sun-synchronous orbit, field of view and superior resolution GeoEye-1 can ?revisit? any point on the globe every three days or sooner, depending upon the required look angle. The satellite will complement GeoEye's current IKONOS system and will collect imagery about 40 percent faster for panchromatic and 25 percent faster for multispectral collections. Together, the IKONOS and GeoEye-1 satellites can collect almost one million sq km of imagery per day.

Volume

In the panchromatic mode the satellite is capable of collecting up to 700,000 square kilometers in a single day, an area about the size of Texas, and in the multispectral mode 350,000 square kilometers per day; the equivalent of photographing in color the entire State of New Mexico. This capability is ideal for large-scale mapping projects. Our customers will have assured access to high-resolution, high-quality commercial imagery well into the 2015 timeframe.

Camera

GeoEye-1?s optical telescope, detectors, focal plane assemblies and high-speed digital processing electronics are capable of processing 700 million pixels per second. GeoEye-1's agile camera allows for side-to-side extensions of the camera's 15.2 kilometer (9.44 miles)-wide swath width or multiple images of the same target during a single pass to create a stereo picture. The camera and electronics represent a 5-times gain in power efficiency, a 10-times improvement in weight efficiency and 3-times advance in cost efficiency.

Products

GeoEye-1 customers will have a choice of ordering basic, ortho-rectified or stereo imagery as well as imagery-derived products, including Digital Elevation Models (DEM?s) and Digital Surface Models (DSM?s), large area mosaics and feature maps. These GeoEye-1 products will serve a wide variety of applications for:

* Defense
* National and Homeland Security
* Air and Marine Transportation
* Oil and Gas
* Energy
* Mining
* Mapping and Location-based Services
* State and Local Government
* Insurance and Risk Management
* Agriculture
* Natural Resources and Environmental Monitoring

Ground Stations

GeoEye upgraded a centralized command and control ground station facility at its headquarters in Dulles, Virginia. This operations center will send tasking and operating commands to the satellite and receive data downlinks from it. Three other stations will be operated or leased by GeoEye in Barrow, Alaska; Tromso, Norway and Troll, Antarctica. The four ground stations will provide the primary data reception needed due to the large volume of imagery that will be captured by the satellite. The Thornton, Colorado regional operational facility has also been upgraded as a back-up ground station for GeoEye-1

 

[ICRS]

Good maps needs to improve its address accuracy. When you map it to my house it is around 5 houses off.

 

[AccruedExpenditure]

Misleading title... Government backed satellite, Google just has exclusive rights to commercial usage of photography
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10034476-93.html

 

[effowe]

16", in black and white, still pretty sweet though. I wonder how close we are to near real time updated satellite images available online. The article says that it can revisit the same patch of land every 3 days, if google maps was updated that often it would be pretty sweet.

 

[Modelworks]

Originally posted by: effowe
16", in black and white, still pretty sweet though. I wonder how close we are to near real time updated satellite images available online. The article says that it can revisit the same patch of land every 3 days, if google maps was updated that often it would be pretty sweet.

I think it would just take more satellites. Even this one will take quite a bit of time before it has everywhere mapped.

 

[Leros]

Does that mean 1 pixel for each 16" x 16" area?

 

[Eli]

That's awesome.

 

[Modelworks]

Originally posted by: Leros
Does that mean 1 pixel for each 16" x 16" area?

A super-sharp Earth-imaging satellite that can detail an area the size of a baseball diamond's home plate from space has been launched into orbit from Vandenberg Air Force Base on the Central California coast.

 

[Eli]

Originally posted by: Leros
Does that mean 1 pixel for each 16" x 16" area?

Hmm, good question, but even if thats the case.. that's pretty good.

Think of how small a foot square would look from even 100 feet up....

 

[Modelworks]

http://launch.geoeye.com/LaunchSite/about/gallery.aspx

They have some links showing comparison of what it should be able to do.

 

[CKent]

Awesome. If there's anything more engrossing than google maps it'll be google maps in hi-def

 

[Baked]

Time for some nude beach action.

 

[Foxery]

Does this mean they'll finally start covering locations outside of major cities? Heh.

 

[Chaotic42]

Now if only they would just redesign their site and tools to be just like Live maps (except the route planner), they would have something going.

 

[Bill Brasky]

It's kinda long, but here's a streaming video of the launch. Like the commentator says, they used a Delta II Rocket.

Text

 

[effowe]

The GeoEye-1 has snapped its first picture.

Picture

Article

 

[bunker]

Meh, we've got 6 inch full color imagery. Flown by plane every few years.

 

[Jeff7]

Originally posted by: effowe
The GeoEye-1 has snapped its first picture.

Picture

Article

Neat, I grew up about 15 miles from there.

 

[DisgruntledVirus]

Originally posted by: bunker
Meh, we've got 6 inch full color imagery. Flown by plane every few years.

Now we could theoretically do it every 3 days.

Realistically it means more like every few months or so the major areas will be mapped after it does the entire globe.

 

[ViviTheMage]

Originally posted by: effowe
The GeoEye-1 has snapped its first picture.

Picture

Article

very nice! I need to purchase me one and get it to stream to my laptop--iphone

 

[olds]

Wake me up when it's online.