Introduction to Remote Sensing,

Earth Observation Optical & Radar Satellites

REGIONAL TRAINING ON THE USE OF DRONES, SATELLITE IMAGERY AND GIS
JUNE 07, 2018

ANDREW STEELE
SALES ENGINEERING MANAGER, DIGITALGLOBE ASIA-PACIFIC

See a better world.

 Remote Sensing is…

The science of obtaining

information about objects or areas
from a distance

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Glasses-Goggle-Eyes-Nerd-Glasses-Fancy-Dress/1431506947

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 …. and Satellites!

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 There are Many Types of Satellites Out There
• Communication Satellites
• To broadcast television, internet, and
enable telephone applications
• Weather Satellites
• To record and monitor the Earth’s
climate: temperature, pollution, cloud
movement
• Navigational Satellites
• To help aircraft and vessels navigate and
determine geographic location
• Earth Observation Satellites
• To observe the earth with various
sensors, including optical and radar
cameras. Typically used for
environmental monitoring and various
mapping applications.

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 Sensor Specifications Characterized by Resolution

• Spatial Resolution
 How big are the pixels? How far can you zoom
into the image?
• Temporal Resolution
 What is the revisit time until the sensor can
collect data over the same location? How often is
the pixel collected? What time of day does the
sensor collect images?
• Spectral Resolution
 What range of the spectrum can the sensor
interpret? How many bands does the sensor
have?

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 Spatial Resolution: How Big are the Pixels?
• Low Resolution Systems
(> 1Km Pixel Size: NOAA-AVHRR, )

• Medium Resolution Systems

(100m ~ 1Km Pixel Size Terra/Aqua-MODIS)

• High Resolution Systems

(5-100m ; Landsat TM/ETM+, SPOT 5)

• Very High Resolution Systems

(<5m ; GeoEye , IKONOS, Quickbird, WV)

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 How much detail is required?
Clouds

1 km

30 cm

1 cm

7
 How much detail is required?
Land use

30 m

30 cm

1 cm

8
 How much detail is required?
Crops

30 m

30 cm

1 cm

senseFly eBee drone

9
IMAGE © 2015 PLANET LABS INC
ZOOM IN

IMAGE © 2015 PLANET LABS

IMAGE © 2015 PLANET LABS
 Coverage vs Spatial Resolution

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 Temporal Resolution:
How frequently are the pixels collected?
• Monitor natural and man-made changes through repeat
collections
• Frequency dependent on sensor field of view, and the number
of satellites in a constellation.
Satellite Sensor Spatial Imaging Capability Number of
Resolution Satellites
MODIS 250m Roughly global, daily coverage 2

LANDSAT 15m Consistent imaging and revisit 1

every 8 days
PLANET 3-5m Roughly global, daily coverage +175

DIGITALGLOBE 30cm Imaging selected areas only on a 5

deman basis, with a combined
revisit of 1 day
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 How frequently does it change?

1
6
 Where is it cloudy now?

1
7
 Where are icebergs?

1
8
 Where are new subdivisions?

1
9
 How many vehicles?

2
0
 Car traffic throughout the day?

2
1
 Spectral Resolution: More than the Eye can See
• Satellites extract information from the energy reflecting off of the Earth’s
surface

• Satellites have the ability to interpret specific light reflectance in the form
of a wave, that is associated with a specific wavelength and frequency.

• The range of specific wavelengths are also known as “bands” describing

the channel of light

22 M-spectral | Definition DigitalGlobe Proprietary and Business Confidential

 Multispectral Imagery Applications

• Measure vegetation health

• Monitor biomass
• Perform crop yield analysis
• Detect flooding
• Detect forest fires
• Perform bathymetry analysis Crop Health

• Generate land cover classification maps (Stages of Health)

• Perform change detection

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 The remote sensing industry is evolving: 2020
20
Bubble area is proportional to total
data volume (TB/day) BlackSky DigitalGlobe
15 high-revisit
constellation
Moderate-
From 2016 Space 2.0 resolution,
10
high-revisit
monitoring
Revisits/
day

3
Skybox DigitalGlobe
Large area, low-resolution
change detection WorldView
constellation

1 SPOT
Planet Labs
Pleiades
High-resolution, high-accuracy
Sentinel 2 mapping and monitoring

.06 Landsat

30 m 5m 1m .50 m .30 m
Resolution
 Operator of the world’s highest-performance
commercial imaging constellation
1999 2001 2007 2008 2009 2014 2016

IKONOS® QuickBird® WorldView-1® GeoEye-1® WorldView-2® WorldView-3® WorldView-4®

.82 meter .65 meter .50 meter .46 meter .46 meter .30 meter .30 meter
resolution resolution resolution resolution resolution resolution resolution
9 m CE90 23 m CE90 <4 m CE90 <3.5 m CE90 <3.5 m CE90 <3.0 m CE90 < 3.5m CE90

AVAILABLE VIA DIGITALGLOBE ARCHIVE CURRENTLY IMAGING IN ORBIT

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Potential Area
150,000 sqkm/day
Potential Area
100,000 sqkm/day
Potential Area
1,560,000 sqkm/day
Potential Area
350,000 sqkm/day
Potential Area
1,170,000 sqkm/day
Potential Area
680,000 sqkm/day
WorldView-4

Potential Area
350,000 sqkm/day
 33

Future Constellation
 More Satellites!

WorldView Legion

• Line collectors which sweep

across the ground with fast rates
and wide swaths
• 30cm spatial resolution, 8 band
multispectral resolution

34
Increased 8-band color capacity

7,000,000

6,000,000

5,000,000

4,000,000
Sqkm/day

3,000,000

2,000,000

1,000,000

0
Today With Legion After WV1/WV2 EOL
Double 30 cm capacity

3,000,000

2,500,000

2,000,000
Sqkm/day

1,500,000

1,000,000

500,000

0
Today With Legion After WV1/WV2 EOL
Our combined constelltion provides intraday revisit
The combined constelltion provides intraday revisit
The combined constelltion provides intraday revisit
The combined constelltion provides intraday revisit
Radar Introduction
SAR Is Fundamentally Different From Optical

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©Maxar Technologies 2018.
Radar Sees The World Differently
Radar provides routine
and reliable detections
on a monthly or better
basis regardless of cloud
cover or seasonal light
limitations

Radar sees changes in

structure and phase
enabling new insights

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restrictions on the title page of this document.
©Maxar Technologies 2018.
Use, duplication or disclosure of this document or any of the information or images contained herein is subject to the
restrictions on the title page of this document.
©Maxar Technologies 2018.
Use, duplication or disclosure of this document or any of the information or images contained herein is subject to the
restrictions on the title page of this document.
©Maxar Technologies 2018.
Commonly Used Frequency Bands

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restrictions on the title page of this document. COPYRIGHT ©2017 MDA
Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) Satellites

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restrictions on the title page of this document. COPYRIGHT ©2017 MDA
Use, duplication or disclosure of this document or any of the information or images contained herein is subject to the 49
restrictions on the title page of this document. COPYRIGHT ©2017 MDA
Use, duplication or disclosure of this document or any of the information or images contained herein is subject to the 50
restrictions on the title page of this document. COPYRIGHT ©2017 MDA
Use, duplication or disclosure of this document or any of the information or images contained herein is subject to the 51
restrictions on the title page of this document. COPYRIGHT ©2017 MDA