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Corporation EarthWatch EarthWatch Orbital Sciences Space Imaging GDE 
"System" "EarlyBird" "QuickBird" "OrbView-1" 
Partners Ball Aerospace & Technology Corp. Orbital Sciences Lockheed Martin TBA 
Hitachi Ltd. EIRAD Co. Ltd. E-Systems 
Nuova Telespazio s.p.a. PE Applied Sci. Mitsubishi 
CTA Space Systems, Inc. Fairchild Systems 
Datron Systems Inc. MDA, Ltd. 
MacDonald, Dettwiler & Assoc., Ltd. 
On-Orbit date | Aug 1996 July 1997 Dec 1997 Dec 1997 Late 1999 
Imager Type Staring Array Pushbroom Pushbroom Pushbroom Pushbroom 
Payload < 100 kg ~ 150 kg 150 kg ~ 225-275 kg TBA (Lightsat) 
Mode Pan MS Pan MS Pan MS Pan MS Pan 
Pixels 8 bit | 8 bit x 11 bit | 11 bit x 8 bit 8 bit 11 bit 11 bit 11 bit 
3 arrays 4 arrays 
Data Size 4MB | 12MB 3.5Gb | 14.2Gb 128Mb | 128Mb TBA TBA TBA 
Table 4. High Resolution Commercial Earth Observing Satellites 
- General Information - 
Corporation EarthWatch EarthWatch Orbital Sciences Space Imaging GDE 
"System" "EarlyBird" "QuickBird" "OrbView-1" 
Mode Pan MS Pan MS Pan MS Pan MS Pan 
Resolution 3m 15 m 1m 4m 1 & 2m | 4m 82 m 4 m 8m 
(Nadir GSD) 
Spectral 45-.80 | .50-.59 45-90 | .45-52 45-90 45-52 45-90 | .45-52 50 -.90 
Bandwidths .61-.68 .53-.59 .52-.60 .52-.60 
(pm) .79-.89 .63-.69 .63-.69 .63-.69 
.71-.90 .76-.90 .76-.90 
Swath width 6 km 30 x 30 36 km 4&8 8 km 11 km z15 km 
km km 
Scene size at 36km? | 900km? 36km x 36km 8km x 8km 60km x 60km 70km x 70km 
nadir (stereo) 
Field of View TBA TBA 1° 03° =12 
Stereo In track In track In track In & crosstrack In & crosstrack 
Pointing - 
in track +30° +3 +45° +45° +45° 
cross track x30? x30? x45? +45° +45° 
Sensor position GPS GPS GPS GPS GPS 
Sensor attitude No Star Trackers Star Trackers 3 Star Trackers Star Trackers 
Accuracy Horiz Vert Horiz X Vert Horiz Vert Horiz Vert Horiz Vert 
with GCP's — 6m 4m 2m 3m 2m 3m 2m 3m 2m 3m 
w/o GCP's — - - . - 12m 8m 12m 8m 12m 8m 
  
  
Table 5. High Resolution Commercial Earth Observing Satellites 
- Sensor Information - 
TBD = To be determined 
TBA = To be announced 
International Archives of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing. Vol. XXXI, Part B4. Vienna 1996