QuickBird satellite imagery

QuickBird was launched on October 18, 2001 from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California. The owner is DigitalGlobe (USA). The satellite was set into near-earth sun-synchronic orbit at the height of 450 km enabling surveying of any area each 1-5 days depending on latitude. QuickBird offers satellite surface imagery with spatial resolution of 61 cm in panchromatic mode and 2.44 m in multispectral mode at nadir.

The main advantage of QuickBird is broad swath width (scene size – 16,5 х 16,5 km), high metric accuracy, capability of ordering irregular shape area including contiguous area with track width up to 2 km. Orbiting time – 7 years.

QuickBird satellite imagery applications

• Creation and refreshing of topographical maps and special plans up to 1:2000 scale.
• Assessing and survey of drill site and transportation infrastructure facilities.
• Realization of forest inventory and organization.
• Agriculture inventory, creation of land use maps and precision farming.
• Topographical background survey for the generation of the perspective urban developing layouts and metropolitan region planning diagrams.
• Inventory and monitoring transport, energy and information communications condition.
• Extensively used in environmental protection scope.

Launch date: October 18, 2001
Mode:	Panchromatic	Multispectral
Spectral bands (mkm):	0.445-0.90	blue: 0.45-0.52 green: 0.52-0.60 red: 0.63-0.69 near IR: 0.76-0.90
Spatial resolution at nadir:	61 cm	2.44 m
Swatch Width:	16.5 km
Maximum off-nadir angle:	45°
Swatch Width	16.5 m
Metric accuracy:	CE90 = 23 m
Radiometric resolution:	11 bits per pixel
File format:	GeoTIFF, NITF
Processing:	Radiometric, sensor and geometric correction Mapped to a cartographic projection
Revisit time:	1-5 days (depending on altitude)
Stereo imagery:	N/A
Order implementation:	3-14 days for archive data 7-90 days for new order
Minimum order area:	25 sq km – archive, irregular shape area is available for ordering 64 sq km – new collects, irregular shape area is available for ordering