Worldview 1

Edited by Leandro Gonzalez

Other Names:

None known

Agency/Company Operating the Sensor

DigitalGlobe

Description

Worldview-1 was one of the first sub-meter resolution commercial satellites. Launched in 2007, Worldview-1 provides 50-cm resolution panchromatic imagery. Because of the agility of the satellite to reposition the satellite (i.e., angle the sensor at off-nadir angles), Worldivew-1 has a revisit time (i.e., can image the same place on the earth) of less than two days.

Similar Sensors

Sensor Specifications

Worldview-1 is a single panchromatic sensor that was launched in September 2007

Spectral Bands/Wavelengths

Worldview-1 has a single panchromatic band that captures reflected electromagnetic radiation between 0.4 and 0.9 μm. Imagery is recorded with a 11-bit radiometric depth.

Image footprint or swath width

The swath width of Worldview-1 is 17.6 km at nadir.

Image resolution

Image resolution of Worldview-1 imagery depends on the off-nadir angle at which it is collected. At nadir, Worldview-1 imagery has a ground resolution of 0.5m (50cm). At a 25-degree off-nadir angle, it has a resolution of 0.59m. The sensor is capable of looking as much as 45 degrees off nadir, however. At these extreme off-nadir angles, ground resolution will be greater than 1m.

Availability

Return interval also depends on off-nadir viewing angle. At a 25-degree off-nadir angle, revisit time is 4.6 days. At maximum off-nadir angle (+/- 45 degrees), revisit time is 1.7 days.

Cost, Acquisition, Licensing

There are costs associated with Worldview-1 imagery. Products can be purchased directly from DigitaGlobe or one of its many resellers.

Products from DigitalGlobe come in three processing levels:

  • Basic – Only radiometric distortions and internal sensor adjustments have been made to the data. Products are ordered by the scene (16.5 km x 16.5 km).
  • Standard –Georectified and delivered in map projection. Area based ordering, meaning you have to specify your area of interest.
  • Orthorectified – GIS ready with geometric and topographic correction, and delivered with a map projection. Area based ordering, meaning you have to specify your area of interest.

See http://www.digitalglobe.com/purchase for current pricing and licensing options.

Image format

From DigitalGlobe, Worldview-1 imagery can be obtained in a Geotiff format making it user friendly for geographic information systems such as ArcGIS and common image processing software. Alternatively, images can be in NITF 2.1 or NITF 2.0, a format primarily used by the intelligence and military communities.

Examples of Rangeland Uses

None known at this time. Due to the fact that the sensor contains only 1 single band (panchromatic), its use for rangeland studies is somehow limited.

Software/Hardware Requirements

WorldView-1 images usually come in a user friendly Geotiff format, which is preferred because of its easy integration with GIS platforms like ArcGIS and image processing programs such as Erdas Imagine and ENVI. Geotiff images often come as one band per file. The size of the files will depend on the extent of the scene. Although the imgery has a fine spatial resolution, it collects data in only one band (panchromatic), causing flies to be relatively small. An image file is about 750KB or greater.

Additional Information

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