QuickBird

QuickBird is a high-resolution commercial earth observation satellite, owned by DigitalGlobe and launched in 2001 as the first satellite in a constellation of three scheduled to be in orbit by 2008. QuickBird collects the second highest resolution commercial imagery of Earth after WorldView-1, and boasts the largest image size and the greatest on-board storage capacity of any satellite. The satellite collects panchromatic (black & white) imagery at 60-70 centimeter resolution and multispectral imagery at 2.4- and 2.8-meter resolutions.

At this resolution, detail such as buildings and other infrastructure are easily visible. However, this resolution is insufficient for working with smaller objects such as a license plate on a car. The imagery can be imported into remote sensing image processing software, as well as into GIS packages for analysis. The imagery can also be used as a backdrop for mapping applications, such as Google Earth and Google Maps.

*Launch Date: October 18, 2001
*Launch Window: 1851-1906 GMT (1451-1506 EDT)
*Launch Vehicle: Delta II
*Launch Site: SLC-2W, Vandenberg Air Force Base, California

Contractors include Ball Aerospace & Technologies, Kodak and Fokker Space.

Specifications

Sensors
* (1.37 μrad) panchromatic at nadir
* (5.47 μrad) multispectral at nadir
** MS Channels: blue (450-520nm), green (520-600nm), red (630-690nm), near-IR (760-900nm)

Swath width and area size
* Nominal swath width: 16.5 km at nadir
* Accessible ground swath: 544 km centered on the satellite ground track (to 30° off nadir)
* Area of interest
** Single area: 16.5 km by 16.5 km
** Strip: 16.5 km by 165 km

Orbit
* Altitude: 450 km – 98 degree sun synchronous inclination
* Revisit frequency: 1 to 3.5 days depending on latitude at 60 cm resolution
* Viewing angle: Agile spacecraft, in-track and cross-track pointing
* Period 93.4 minutes

Onboard storage
* 128 Gibibit (137 Gigabit) capacity (approximately 57 single area images)

Spacecraft
* Fueled for 7 years
* 2100 lb (950 kg), 3.04 m (10 ft) in length

ee also

External links

* [http://www.digitalglobe.com/index.php/85/QuickBird DigitalGlobe] - QuickBird specifications
* [http://www.ballaerospace.com/page.jsp?page=77 Ball Aerospace]