QuickBird

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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 highest resolution commercial imagery of Earth, and boasts the largest image size and the greatest on-board storage capacity of any other 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.

[edit] Specifications

Sensors

60 cm (1.37 μrad) panchromatic at nadir
2.4 m (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