The Pléiades constellation is composed of two very-high-resolution optical Earth-imaging satellites. Pléiades 1 and Pléiades 2 will provide coverage of Earth’s surface with a repeat cycle of 26 days .[1] . Designed as a dual civil/military system, Pléiades will meet the space imagery requirements of European defence as well as civil and commercial needs.
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The Pléiades system was designed under the French-Italian ORFEO program (Optical & Radar Federated Earth Observation) between 2001 and 2003.[2]
The Pléiades programme was launched in October 2003 with CNES (the French space agency) as the overall system prime contractor and EADS Astrium as the prime contractor for the space segment. Pléiades-1 was launched via a Russian Soyuz ST rocket out of French Guiana on December 16, 2011. Pléiades 2 will launch in mid-2012.[3]
Spot Image is the official and exclusive worldwide distributor of Pléiades products and services under a delegated public service agreement.
The two satellites will operate in the same phased orbit and will be offset at 180° to offer a daily revisit capability over any point on the globe.
Equipped with innovative latest-generation space technologies like fibre-optic gyros and control moment gyros, Pléiades 1 and 2 will offer exceptional roll, pitch and yaw (slew) agility, enabling the system to maximize the number of acquisitions above a given area.
This agility coupled with particularly dynamic image acquisition programming will make the Pléiades system very responsive to specific user requirements. Individual user requests will be answered in record time, thanks to multiple programming plans per day and a state-of-the-art image processing chain. Performance at a glance:
| mode | Channel | Spectral band |
|---|---|---|
| multispectral | 1 | 430 – 550 nm (blue) |
| 2 | 490 – 610 nm (green) | |
| 3 | 600 – 720 nm (red) | |
| 4 | 750 – 950 nm (near-infrared) | |
| panchromatic | P | 480 – 830 nm (black and white) |
| Resolution | Panchromatic: 50 cm |
| Multispectral: 2 m | |
| Pansharpened: 50 cm | |
| Bundle: 50 cm PAN & 2 m MS | |
| Footprint | 20 km swath |
| Single pass mosaics up to 100 km x 100 km | |
| Accuracy | 4.5 m CE 90 with refined attitude data, without ground control points (GCPs) |
When satellite operations begin, four ground receiving stations will be deployed for the direct downlink and archiving of imagery data:
Regional receiving stations (fixed or mobile) will subsequently be installed at the request of users.
The Pléiades tasking plan will be refreshed and uploaded three times per day, allowing for last minute requests and the ability to utilize up-to-the-minute weather forecasts.
The Pléiades system is designed for a range of very-high-resolution (VHR) remote sensing applications. These include: