RAPIDEYE™ IMAGERY

PRODUCT SPECIFICATIONS

VERSION 6.1 | JANUARY 2016 [email protected] | PLANET.COM

Table of Contents
1. INTRODUCTION ___________________________________________________________________________ 5

2. RAPIDEYE SATELLITE CONSTELLATION ______________________________________________________ 6

3. RAPIDEYE SATELLITE IMAGE PRODUCT SPECIFICATIONS ________________________________________ 7

3.1 RapidEye Basic – Level 1B Product Specification _____________________________________________ 7
3.2 RapidEye Ortho – Level 3A Product Specification ____________________________________________ 9
3.3 RapidEye Ortho Take– Level 3B Product Specification _______________________________________ 10
3.4 Product Quality Attributes _______________________________________________________________ 11
3.4.1 Geometric Product Accuracy_________________________________________________________ 11
3.4.2 Cloud Cover______________________________________________________________________ 12
3.4.3 Band Co-registration_______________________________________________________________ 13
3.4.4 Product Radiometry and Radiometric Accuracy_________________________________________ 13

4. PRODUCT AND DELIVERY OPTIONS ________________________________________________________ 15

5. PRODUCT LICENSING _____________________________________________________________________ 16

6. PRODUCT NAMING _______________________________________________________________________ 17

6.1 1B – Basic Product Naming _____________________________________________________________ 17
6.2 3A – Ortho Product Naming ____________________________________________________________ 18
6.3 3B – Ortho Take Product Naming ________________________________________________________ 19

7. PRODUCT DELIVERY ______________________________________________________________________ 20

7.1 Delivery Options ______________________________________________________________________ 20
7.2 Delivery Files _________________________________________________________________________ 20
7.2.1 Delivery Readme File_______________________________________________________________ 20
7.2.2 Area of Interest (AOI) Shapefile______________________________________________________ 21
7.2.3 Delivery Summary Shapefile_________________________________________________________ 21
7.2.4 Delivery Summary KMZ File_________________________________________________________ 21
7.2.5 Delivery Checksum File_____________________________________________________________ 22
7.3 Delivery Folder Structure _______________________________________________________________ 22

8. IMAGE SUPPORT DATA ____________________________________________________________________ 24

8.1 General XML Metadata File ______________________________________________________________ 24
8.1.1 Contents_________________________________________________________________________ 24
8.1.2 File Naming_______________________________________________________________________ 30
8.2 Spacecraft Information XML Metadata File _________________________________________________ 31
8.2.1 Contents________________________________________________________________________ 31
8.2.2 File Naming______________________________________________________________________ 33
8.3 Image RPC XML Metadata File __________________________________________________________ 33
8.3.1 Contents_________________________________________________________________________ 33
8.3.2 File Naming______________________________________________________________________ 34
8.4 Browse Image File ____________________________________________________________________ 35
8.4.1 Contents________________________________________________________________________ 35
8.4.2 File Naming______________________________________________________________________ 35

Table Of Contents | RapidEye Imagery Product Specifications Page 2

 8.5 Unusable Data Mask File _______________________________________________________________ 35
8.5.1 Contents________________________________________________________________________ 35
8.5.2 File Naming______________________________________________________________________ 37
8.6 License File __________________________________________________________________________ 37
8.6.1 Contents________________________________________________________________________ 37
8.6.2 File Naming______________________________________________________________________ 37
8.7 Readme File _________________________________________________________________________ 37
8.7.1 Contents_________________________________________________________________________ 37
8.7.2 File Naming______________________________________________________________________ 37

APPENDIX A – GLOSSARY OF TERMS _________________________________________________________ 39

APPENDIX B – TILE GRID DEFINITION _________________________________________________________ 40
APPENDIX C – NITF FILE STRUCTURE AND CONTENTS ___________________________________________ 43

Index of Tables

Table 1: RapidEye System Mission Characteristics _________________________________________________ 6

Table 2: RapidEye Satellite Image Product Processing Levels ________________________________________ 7
Table 3: Product attributes for RapidEye Basic products ____________________________________________ 8
Table 4: Attributes for RapidEye Ortho Products __________________________________________________ 9
Table 5: Attributes for RapidEye Ortho Take Products _____________________________________________ 10
Table 6: Product Processing and Delivery Options ________________________________________________ 15
Table 7: Product naming values for 1B products by category ________________________________________ 17
Table 8: Product naming values for 3A products by category _______________________________________ 18
Table 9: Product naming values for 3B products by category _______________________________________ 19
Table 10: Delivery Readme File Contents ________________________________________________________ 20
Table 11: General XML Metadata File Field Descriptions ____________________________________________ 24
Table 12: Spacecraft Information Metadata File Field Descriptions ___________________________________ 31
Table 13: Image RPC Metadata File Field Descriptions _____________________________________________ 33
Table 14: Readme File Contents _______________________________________________________________ 38
Table 15: NITF File Main Header Contents _______________________________________________________ 43
Table 16: NITF Subheader Contents ____________________________________________________________ 45
Table 17: RPC00B (Rapid Positioning Capability) portion of the NITF Subheader Contents _______________ 48
Table 18: STDIDC (Standard ID Extension Format) portion of NITF Subheader Contents __________________ 49
Table 19: USE00A (Exploitation Usability) portion of the NITF Subheader Contents _____________________ 50

Index of Figures
Figure 1: Expected Product Delivery Folder Structure for FTP Deliveries ______________________________ 23
Figure 2: Concepts behind the Unusable Data Mask file ____________________________________________ 36
Figure B-1 Layout of UTM Zones _______________________________________________________________ 40
Figure B-2 Layout of Tile Grid within a single UTM Zone ___________________________________________ 41
Figure B-3 Illustration of grid layout of Rows and Columns for a single UTM Zone ______________________ 42
Figure C-1: Structure of NITF 2.0 File ___________________________________________________________ 43

Index Of Tables | Index of Figures | RapidEye Imagery Product Specifications

Abbreviations

AOI Area Of Interest

CCD Charged-coupled Device
CE90 Circular Error 90%
DEM Digital Elevation Model
DTED Digital Terrain Elevation Data
GCP Ground Control Point
GML Geography Markup Language
GS Ground Segment
IFOV Instantaneous Field of View
ISD Image Support Data
JFIF JPEG File Interchange Format
JPEG Joint Photographic Experts Group
KML Keyhole Markup Language
MTF Modulation Transfer Function
N/A Not Applicable
NIR Near Infra-red
NMAS National Map Accuracy Standards
NITF National Imagery Transmission Format
RPC Rational Polynomial Coefficients or Rapid Positioning Coordinates
SRTM Shuttle Radar Topography Mission
TBC To Be Confirmed
TBD To Be Defined
TIFF Tagged Image File Format
TOA Top Of Atmosphere
TOI Time Of Interest
UDM Unusable Data Mask
UTC Coordinated Universal Time
UTM Universal Transverse Mercator

WGS World Geodetic System

Disclaimer

This document is designed as a general guideline for customers interested in acquiring Planet imagery products and services. Planet takes an
agile and iterative approach to its technology, and therefore may make changes to the product(s) described in this document. This document is
provided “as is” without warranty of any kind.

Abbreviations | RapidEye Imagery Product Specifications Page 4

1. INTRODUCTION

Planet offers image users a data source containing an unrivaled combination of large-area coverage,
frequent revisit intervals, high resolution and multispectral capabilities. For the first time, there is a
constellation of five earth imaging satellites that contain identical sensors that are in the same orbital plane
and are calibrated equally to one another. This means an image from one RapidEye satellite will be identical
in characteristics to an image from any of the other four satellites, thus allowing the user access to an
unprecedented amount of imagery collected on a frequent basis.

RapidEye Satellite Imagery Products are offered at three different processing types to support the varied
needs of the customer:

• 1 RapidEye Basic (Level 1B) products are sensor level products with a minimal amount of processing
(geometrically uncorrected) for customers who prefer to geo-correct the images themselves;

• and 2 RapidEye Ortho (Level 3A) are orthorectified tile products with radiometric, geometric and
terrain corrections in a map projection;

• and 3 RapidEye Ortho Take (Level 3B) are orthorectified, bundle adjusted image takes that are larger
than the Level 3A products. See Section 3 for detailed descriptions of each image product type.

This document provides detailed information on the following subjects related to the RapidEye Satellite
Imagery Products:

RapidEye Satellite Constellation: The RapidEye constellation of 5 satellites offers something new and
unique to the world of commercial remote sensing.

Product Level Descriptions: Planet offers three different processing levels for RapidEye Satellite images
which are described in detail. Attributes related to product quality are also discussed.

Product and Delivery Options: Each image data product is offered with several processing and delivery
options.

Product Licensing: Planet offers customers several licensing options to ensure that all users who need to
use the imagery may do so.

Product Naming: Provides a description of the product naming conventions used for the RapidEye Satellite
Imagery Products.

Product Delivery: The Satellite Image Products are delivered in a standardized format and structure. Orders
can be delivered via physical storage devices or electronically via FTP pull download. This section details
what can be expected regarding the files and structure of a data delivery.

Image Support Data: All images are supported with several different metadata files to aid the customer
with the use and analysis of the data.

1. Introduction | RapidEye Imagery Product Specifications Page 5

2. RAPIDEYE SATELLITE CONSTELLATION

The RapidEye constellation of five satellites stands apart from other providers of satellite-based geospatial
information in its unique ability to acquire high-resolution, large-area image data on a daily basis. The
RapidEye system is able to collect an unprecedented 4 million square kilometers of data per day at 6.5 meter
nominal ground resolution. Each satellite measures less than one cubic meter and weighs 150 kg (bus +
payload), and has been designed for a minimum seven-year mission life. All five satellites are equipped with
identical sensors and are located in the same orbital plane.

Table 1: RapidEye System Mission Characteristics

Mission Characteristic Information

Number of Satellites 5

Spacecraft Lifetime Over 7 years

Orbit Altitude 630 km in Sun-synchronous orbit

Equator Crossing Time 11:00 am local time (approximately)

Sensor Type Multi-spectral push broom imager

Spectral Bands Capable of capturing all of the following spectral bands:

Band Name Spectral Range (nm)

Blue 440 – 510

Green 520 – 590

Red 630 – 685

Red Edge 690 – 730

NIR 760 – 850

Ground Sampling Distance (nadir) 6.5 m

Pixel size (orthorectified) 5m

Swath Width 77 km

On board data storage Up to 1500 km of image data per orbit

Revisit time Daily (off-nadir) / 5.5 days (at nadir)

Image capture capacity 5 million km²/day

Camera Dynamic Range 12 bit

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3. RAPIDEYE SATELLITE IMAGE PRODUCT
SPECIFICATIONS

RapidEye Satellite Imagery Products are available in three different processing levels to be directly
applicable to customer needs.

Table 2: RapidEye Satellite Image Product Processing Levels

Level Description

1B RapidEye Basic Product - Radiometric and sensor corrections applied to the data. On-board spacecraft
attitude and ephemeris applied to the data.

RapidEye Ortho Product – Radiometric, sensor and geometric corrections applied to the data. The prod-
3A
uct accuracy depends on the quality of the ground control and DEMs used. Product is processed as an
individual 25 km by 25 km tile.

3B RapidEye Ortho Take Product – Large-scale orthorectified product based on RapidEye Image Takes.
Multiple images over an AOI will be bundle adjusted together for accuracy purposes.

3.1. RapidEye Basic – Level 1B Product Specification

The RapidEye Basic product is the least processed of the available RapidEye image products. This product is
designed for customers with advanced image processing capabilities and a desire to geometrically correct the
product themselves.

The RapidEye Basic product is radiometric and sensor corrected, providing imagery as seen from the space-
craft without correction for any geometric distortions inherent in the imaging process, and is not mapped to a
cartographic projection. The imagery data is accompanied by all spacecraft telemetry necessary for the pro-
cessing of the data into a geo-corrected form, or when matched with a stereo pair, for the generation of digital
elevation data. Resolution of the images is 6.5 meters GSD at nadir. The images are resampled to a coordinate
system defined by an ideal basic camera model for band alignment.

The radiometric corrections applied to this product are:

• Correction of relative differences of the radiometric response between detectors

• Non-responsive detector filling which fills nulls values from detectors that are no longer responding
• Conversion to absolute radiometric values based on calibration coefficients

The geometric sensor corrections applied to this product correct for:

• Internal detector geometry which combines the two sensor chipsets into a virtual array
• Optical distortions caused by sensor optics
• Registration of all bands together to ensure all bands line up with each other correctly

Table 3 lists the product attributes for the RapidEye Basic product.

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Table 3: Product attributes for RapidEye Basic products

Product Attribute Description

RapidEye Basic image product consists of the following file components:

Image File – Image product delivered as a group of single-band NITF 2.0 or Geo-
TIFF files with associated RPC values. Bands are co-registered.
Metadata File – XML format metadata file. Metadata file contains additional
Product Components and Format information related to spacecraft attitude, spacecraft ephemeris, spacecraft tem-
perature measurements, line imaging times, camera geometry, and radiometric
calibration data.
Browse Image File – GeoTIFF format
Unusable Data Mask (UDM) file – GeoTIFF format

Product Orientation Spacecraft/sensor orientation

Product Framing

Geographic based framing – a

geographic region is defined by two
corners. The product width is close to
the full image swath as observed by
all bands (77 km at nadir, subject to
minor trimming of up to 3 km during
processing) with a product length of
between 50 and 300 km.

Pixel spacing Native camera pixel spacing, nominally 6.5 m at nadir.

Bit Depth 16-bit unsigned integers.

Variable number of pixels (less than 11980 per line) and up to a maximum of 46154
lines per band.
Product Size
462 Mbytes/25 km along track for 5 bands.
Maximum 5544 Mbytes.

Geometric Corrections Idealized sensor, orbit and attitude models. Bands are co-registered.

Horizontal Datum WGS84

Map Projection n/a

Resampling Kernel Cubic Convolution (default), MTF, or Nearest Neighbor

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3.2. RapidEye Ortho – Level 3A Product Specification

The RapidEye Ortho product offers RapidEye Satellite imagery orthorectified as individual 25 by 25 kilometer tiles.
This product was designed for a wide variety of applications that require imagery with an accurate geolocation
and cartographic projection. It has been processed to remove distortions caused by terrain and can be used for
many cartographic purposes.

The RapidEye Ortho product is radiometric, sensor and geometrically corrected and aligned to a cartographic map
projection. The geometric correction uses fine DEMs with a post spacing of between 30 and 90 meters. Ground
Control Points (GCPs) are used in the creation of every image and the accuracy of the product will vary from
region to region based on available GCPs. RapidEye Ortho image products are output as 25 by 25 kilometer tiles
referenced to a fixed, standard RapidEye image tile grid system (see Appendix B). All Ortho image products (Level
3A) are black-filled 1000 meters (200 pixels) beyond the order polygon used to place the product order, except
for when the order is tile-based. The Browse Image and Unusable Data Mask (UDM) files of an Ortho product show
the full extent of valid imagery available for the given image tile regardless of the black-fill applied to an order.

Table 4: Attributes for RapidEye Ortho Products

Product Attribute Description

RapidEye Ortho image product consists of the following file components:
Image File – GeoTIFF file that contains image data and geolocation information
Product Components and Format Metadata File – XML format metadata file
Browse Image File – GeoTIFF format
Unusable Data Mask (UDM) file – GeoTIFF format

Product Orientation Map North up

Image Tile (image tiles are based on a worldwide, 24km by 24km fixed grid system
(see Appendix B for full tile grid definition). To each 24km by 24km grid square,
a 500m overlap is added to produce a 25km by 25km image tile. Image tiles are
Product Framing
black-filled 1km beyond the order polygon used during order placement. Tiles only
partially covered by an image take will be also be black-filled in areas containing
no valid image data.

Pixel spacing 5m

Bit Depth 16-bit unsigned integers.

Tile size is 25km (5000 lines) by 25km (5000 columns).

Product Size
250 Mbytes per Tile for 5 bands at 5m pixel spacing.

Sensor-related effects are corrected using sensor telemetry and a sensor model,
bands are co-registered, and spacecraft-related effects are corrected using atti-
Geometric Corrections
tude telemetry and best available ephemeris data.
Orthorectified using GCPs and fine DEMs (30m to 90m posting)

Horizontal Datum WGS84

Map Projection Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM)

Resampling Kernel Cubic Convolution (default), MTF, or Nearest Neighbor

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3.3. RapidEye Ortho Take – Level 3B Product Specification

The RapidEye Ortho Take product extends the usability of orthorectified RapidEye products by leveraging full
image takes and adjusts multiple images together to cover larger areas with fewer files. These products are
radiometric, sensor and geometrically corrected and aligned to a cartographic map projection. The geometric
correction uses fine DEMs with a post spacing of between 30 and 90 meters. Ground Control Points (GCPs)
and DEM are used in the creation of every image.

Multiple images may be used to cover the desired order polygon and those images will be bundle adjusted
together before orthorectification, but each image will be produced and delivered as a separate standalone file
with no mosaicking or color balancing being performed.

Table 5: Attributes for RapidEye Ortho Take Products

Product Attribute Description

RapidEye Ortho Take image product consists of the following file components:
Image File – GeoTIFF file that contains image data and geolocation information
Product Components and Format Metadata File – XML format metadata file.
Browse Image File – GeoTIFF format
Unusable Data Mask (UDM) file – GeoTIFF format

Product Orientation Map North up

Area based framing – a geographic region is defined by order polygon. The

product width can be up to the full image swath as observed by all bands (~77
Product Framing km at nadir) and up to a maximum length of 150km. Images are cut to a minimum
bounding rectangle and are black-filled 1km beyond the order polygon used during
order placement.

Pixel spacing 5m

Bit Depth 16-bit unsigned integers.

Variable number of pixels (less than 11980 per line) and up to a maximum of
Product Size
60000 lines.
Sensor-related effects are corrected using sensor telemetry and a sensor model,
bands are co-registered, and spacecraft-related effects are corrected using atti-
tude telemetry and best available ephemeris data.

Geometric Corrections
Orthorectified using GCPs and fine DEMs. Orders may contain more than one
product to fully cover the order polygon. If multiple images are needed to cover
the order polygon, then those images will be geometrically corrected to one an-
other in a “bundle” adjustment process before orthorectification takes place.

Horizontal Datum WGS84

Map Projection Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM)

Resampling Kernel Cubic Convolution (default), MTF, or Nearest Neighbor

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3.4. Product Quality Attributes

The following sections detail the quality attributes related to all RapidEye Satellite Imagery Products.

3.4.1. Geometric Product Accuracy

3.4.1.1. Global Reference 2.0

Global Reference 2.0 is the most current and consistent global control database on the market. Designed and
built to support the orthorectification of the RapidEye satellite imagery on a global scale, Global Reference
2.0 leverages some of the most accurate datasets available worldwide. Global Reference 2.0 covers all Earth
landmasses excluding polar regions and small islands for a total of over 130 million km².

The majority of the 500,000 Ground Control Points currently available, have been derived from orthorectified
RapidEye imagery that has been accurately controlled with 50 cm resolution DigitalGlobe WorldView-1/2/3 and
GeoEye-1 satellite imagery. The remaining has been extracted from airborne imagery (Continental US, Mexico
and several European countries) with resolution under 1 m and from the AGRI (Australian Geographic Reference
Image 1 ) dataset with 2.5m resolution. The vertical component of Global Reference 2.0 is derived from Digital
Elevation Models with a post spacing under 30 m globally.

3.4.1.2. RapidEye Basic (1B) Accuracy

The RapidEye Basic (1B) products are geometrically corrected to an idealized sensor and satellite model,
and band aligned. They are delivered as NITF 2.0 (National Imagery Transmission Format) or GeoTIFF files
together with Rapid Positioning Capability (RPC) described by rational functions. The horizontal accuracy of
Level 1B products is determined by satellite attitude (which is adjusted by pre-marking Ground Control Points
during image cataloging) and ephemeris as well as terrain displacement, since no terrain model is used in the
processing of the 1B products.

The expected accuracy of a 1B Basic product cataloged with Global Reference 2.0 GCPs is 10 m RMSE or better,
excluding terrain and off-nadir effects.

3.4.1.3. RapidEye Ortho (3A) Accuracy

The locational accuracy of the RapidEye Ortho (3A) products depends on the quality of the reference data used
(GCPs and DEMs). Additionally, the roll angle of the spacecraft during the image acquisition and the number as
well as the distribution of GCPs within the image will impact the final product accuracy.

As mentioned in the previous section, multiple sources are used for GCPs creation globally and vary in accuracy.
Multiple sources of DEMs are also used for terrain correction. The default DEM used for orthocorrection is the
Intermap NEXTMap World30 (http://www.intermap.com/data/nextmap-world-30). For Australia 2, United States,
Mexico and New Zealand more accurate national datasets are used. As with GCP creation, Planet is continuously
engaged in improving its global DEM.

1 Data provided by the Creative Commons License of Geoscience Australia

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RapidEye Ortho products produced using Global Reference 2.0 GCPs and the World30 DEM will have a
locational accuracy of 10 m RMSE or better. Internal testing conducted on multiple locations worldwide
indicates that locational accuracy will typically (80% of the time) be better than 7 m RMSE.

3.4.1.4. RapidEye Ortho Take (3B) Accuracy

The accuracy of the RapidEye Ortho Take (3B) products depends on the quality of the reference data used
(GCPs and DEMs). RapidEye Ortho Take (3B) will have a locational accuracy of 10 m RMSE or better.

3.4.2. Cloud Cover

Cloud detection for the RapidEye Satellite Image products is done at two different stages of image processing
with the results being used to create the Unusable Data Mask (UDM) file that accompanies every image product
(see Section 8.5 for a detailed description of the UDM file). The two stages in the processing chain where the
cloud cover is determined are:

 1. Cataloging: for each acquired image received on the ground, the system performs a cloud detection and
provides an Unusable Data Mask (UDM) for each tile in the image (see Appendix B for a description of the
tile grid); the result of this assessment is used to determine whether each tile can be accepted or whether
a new collection is required and the area re-tasked. This value is also used to report the Cloud cover
Percentage value for the product in the EyeFind™ archive discovery tool

 2. Processing: for each product generated the system performs cloud detection and produces a UDM file for
that product. This is provided to the Customer as part of the Image Support Data (ISD) metadata files.

The cloud cover algorithm used in the RapidEye processing system has been specifically developed for
RapidEye imagery and detects clouds based on complex pattern recognition algorithms which use information
from all available spectral bands. This cloud cover algorithm is an improvement over previous versions and
further improvements are being pursued on an ongoing basis.

This cloud detection technique has a number of known limitations:

 1. haze and cloud shadow are not reported

 2. snow/ice may be incorrectly classified as clouds
 3. overly bright surfaces, such as some desert surfaces, sands and salt flats
 2. “darker” and/or smaller “popcorn” clouds may be undetected

Due to the vast amount of imagery collected on a daily basis, the cloud detection in both stages is the result of
a fully automatic process and thus there is no “manual” quality control of the UDMs.

2 Data provided by the Creative Commons License of Geoscience Australia

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3.4.3. Band Co-registration

The focal plane of the RapidEye sensors is comprised of five separate CCD arrays, one for each band. This
means that the bands have imaging time differences of up to three seconds for the same point on the ground,
with the blue and red bands being the furthest apart in time. During processing, every product is band co-
registered using a DEM to roughly correlate the bands to the reference band (Red Edge); a final alignment is
done using an auto-correlation approach between the bands. For areas where the slope is below 10°, the band
co-registration should be within 0.2 pixels or less (1-sigma). For areas with a slope angle of more than 10° and/
or areas with very limited image structure (e.g. sand dunes, bodies of water, areas with significant snow cover)
the co-registration threshold mentioned above may not be met.

The separation between the RapidEye spectral bands leads to some effects that can be seen in the imagery. In
a regular RapidEye scene with clouds, the cloud may show a red-blue halo around the main cloud. This is due
to the Red and Blue bands being furthest apart on the sensor array, and the cloud moving during the imaging
time between the two bands. Also, clouds are not reflected within the DEM which may lead to misregistration.
The same effect is visible for jet exhaust trails and flying planes. Bright vehicles moving on the ground will also
look like colored streaks due to the image time differences.

3.4.4. Product Radiometry and Radiometric Accuracy

3.4.1.1. Global Reference 2.0

Significant effort is made to ensure radiometric image product quality of all RapidEye Satellite Imagery
Products. This is achieved through a vigorous sensor calibration concept that is based on regular checks of
the statistics from all incoming image data, acquisitions over selected temporal calibration sites, and absolute
ground calibration campaigns.

The long term stability and inter-comparability among all five satellites is done by monitoring all incoming
image data, along with frequent acquisitions from a number of calibration sites located worldwide. Statistics
from all collects are used to update the gain and offset tables for each satellite. These statistics are also used to
ensure that each band is within a range of +/-2.5% from the band mean value across the constellation and over
the satellites’ lifetime.

All RapidEye satellite images are collected at 12 bit and stored on-board the satellites with a bit depth of up
to 12 bits. The bit depth of the original raw imagery can be determined from the “shifting” field in the XML
metadata file. During on-ground processing, radiometric corrections are applied and all images are scaled to a
16 bit dynamic range. This scaling converts the (relative) pixel DNs coming directly from the sensor into values
directly related to absolute at sensor radiances. The scaling factor is applied so that the resultant single DN
values correspond to 1/100th of a W/m2 sr µm. The digital numbers of the RapidEye image pixels represent the
absolute calibrated radiance values for the image.

To convert the Digital Number (DN) of a pixel to radiance it is necessary to multiply the DN value by the
radiometric scale factor, as follows:

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The resulting value is the at sensor radiance of that pixel in watts per steradian per square meter (W/m2 sr μm).
Reflectance is generally the ratio of the reflected radiance divided by the incoming radiance. Note, that this
ratio has a directional aspect. To turn radiances into a reflectance it is necessary to relate the radiance values
(i.e. the pixel DNs) to the radiance the object is illuminated with. This is often done by applying an atmospheric
correction software to the image, because this way the impact of the atmosphere to the radiance values
is eliminated at the same time. But it would also be possible to neglect the influence of the atmosphere by
calculating the Top Of Atmosphere (TOA) reflectance taking into consideration only the sun distance and the
geometry of the incoming solar radiation.

The formula to calculate the TOA reflectance not taking into account any atmospheric influence is as follows:

with:

i: Number of the spectral band

REF: Reflectance value
RAD: Radiance value
SunDist: Earth-Sun Distance at the day of acquisition in Astronomical Units
Note: This value is not fixed, it varies between 0.983 289 8912 AU and 1.016 710 3335 AU and has
to be calculated for the image acquisition point in time.
EAI: Exo-Atmospheric Irradiance
SolarZenith: Solar Zenith angle in degrees (= 90° – sun elevation)

For RapidEye the EAI values for the 5 bands are:

Blue: 1997.8 W/m²µm

Green: 1863.5 W/m²µm
Red: 1560.4 W/m²µm
RE: 1395.0 W/m²µm
NIR: 1124.4 W/m²µm

Results from an on-orbit absolute calibration campaign have been used to update the pre-launch absolute
calibration of all five sensors. This calibration change applies to all imagery acquired after January 1, 2010, but
was only effective on or after April 27, 2010. Please contact us at [email protected] for a complete list of
papers and publications dealing with the calibration of the RapidEye satellites.

The radiometric sensitivity for each band is defined in absolute values for standard conditions (21 March, 45°
North, Standard atmosphere) in terms of a minimum detectable reflectance difference. This determines the
already mentioned bit depth as well as the tolerable radiometric noise within the images. It is more restrictive
for the Red, Red Edge, and Near-infrared bands, compared with the Blue and Green bands. During image
quality control a continuous check of the radiometric noise level is performed.

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4. PRODUCT AND DELIVERY OPTIONS

Table 6 summarizes the product options available for all RapidEye Satellite Imagery Products.

Table 6: Product Processing and Delivery Options

Processing Option Discussion

Processing Kernels Nearest Neighbor, Cubic Convolution (default), or MTF

GeoTIFF (default for level 3A & 3B );

Image File Formats
NITF (default for level 1B, not available for Level 3A);

Projection (only for 3A & 3B products) UTM WGS84

FTP Pull
Delivery USB Hard Drive
USB Memory stick

4. Product And Delivery Options | RapidEye Imagery Product Specifications Page 15

5. PRODUCT LICENSING

Planet grants the right to use the Products under a standard End-User License Agreement (EULA). Planet
offers several licensing options to address the needs of end-users.

For a detailed description of the standard EULAs, please click on one of the following options:
• Customers Outside Germany and the US
• US customers
• German customers

The inclusion of the imagery or data contained in the RapidEye Products in any product by an end-user is
considered value-added work. Resale or distribution of these value-added products is not permitted under
the standard EULA. To redistribute the Products or value-added products to third parties, the customer
must request additional licensing from Planet. Licensing allowing additional use may be granted to the
customer upon the conclusion of a license upgrade. Contact Planet for details.

5. Product Licensing | RapidEye Imagery Product Specifications Page 16

6. PRODUCT NAMING

The naming of RapidEye Satellite Imagery Products provides important information related to the image.
The naming of the product depends on the product type and is different between the product levels. The
name of each product is designed to be unique and allow for easier recognition and sorting of the imagery.

6.1. 1B – Basic Product Naming

The information provided in the 1B – Basic product name includes acquisition date and time, satellite that
acquired the image, product level, product description, product and order identification and file type with
format. The name of each 1B product is composed of the following elements:
<acquisition time>_<satellite>_<product ID>_<RE catalog ID>_<order number>_<file type>.<file
extension>

For example: 1B Product File Name = 2008-10-26T012345_RE3_1B-NAC_0123456789_9876543210_band1.ntf

where:

<acquisition time> = 2008-10-26 (date) T012345 (time in UTC)

<satellite> = RE3
<product ID> = <processing level>-<product description>
= 1B (processing level) -NAC (product description)
<RE catalog ID> = 0123456789
<order number> = 9876543210
<file type> = band1 (only for L1B images)
<file extension> = ntf (NITF 2.0)

The expected values for the satellite, product ID (processing level + product description), file type and file
extension fields are listed in Table 7.
.
Table 7: Product naming values for 1B products by category

Satellite Product ID File Formats

Processing Product
File Type File Extensions
Level Description
For Images : bandn for 1B images .ntf = NITF2.0
(where n = 1...5) .tif = GeoTIFF
browse .tif
license .txt
NAC = Non-
1-5 1B = RE Basic atmospherically metadata .xml
corrected sci (spacecraft metadata) .xml
rpc (rpc metadata) .xml
readme .txt
udm .tif

6. Product Naming | RapidEye Imagery Product Specifications Page 17

6.2. 3A – Ortho Product Naming

The information provided in the 3A – Ortho product name includes acquisition date, RapidEye Tile ID, satellite
that acquired the image, processing level, order identification and file type with format. The name of each 3A
product is composed of the following elements:
<RapidEye Tile ID>_<acquisition date>_<satellite>_<processing level>_<order number>.<file
extension>

For example: 3A Product File Name = 3949726_ 2012-01-16_RE3_3A_9876543210.tif

where:

<Rapid Tile ID> = 3949726 (See Appendix B – Tile Grid Definition for more information)
<acquisition date> = 2008-10-26
<satellite> = RE3
<processing level> = 3A
<order number> = 9876543210
<file extension> = tif (GeoTIFF 6.0)

The expected values for the satellite, processing level, file type and file extension fields are listed in Table 8.

Table 8: Product naming values for 3A products by category

Satellite Product ID File Formats

File Type File Extensions

For Images : none for 3A GeoTIFF images .tif = GeoTIFF

browse .tif
1-5 3A = RE Ortho license .txt

metadata .xml
readme .txt
udm .tif

6. Product Naming | RapidEye Imagery Product Specifications Page 18

6.3. 3B – Ortho Take Product Naming

The information provided in the 3B – Ortho Take product name includes acquisition date and time, satellite that
acquired the image, product level, product description, product and order identification and file format. The
name of each 3B product is composed of the following elements:
<acquisition time>_<satellite>_<product ID>_<RE catalog ID>_<order number>_<file type>.<file
extension>

For example: 3B Product File Name = 2008-10-26T012345_RE3_3B-NAC_0123456789_9876543210.tif

where:

<acquisition time> = 2008-10-26 (date) T012345 (time in UTC)

<satellite> = RE3
<product ID> = <processing level>-<product description>
= 3B (processing level) -NAC (product description)
<RE catalog ID> = 0123456789
<order number> = 9876543210
<file type> = none of 3B GeoTIFF images
<file extension> = tif (GeoTIFF 6.0)

The expected values for the satellite, product ID (processing level + product description), file type and file
extension fields are listed in Table 9.

Table 9: Product naming values for 3B products by category

Satellite Product ID File Formats

Processing Product
File Type File Extensions
Level Description
For Images : none for 3B GeoTIFF
.tif = GeoTIFF
images
browse .tif
NAC = Non-
1-5 3B = RE Ar- license .txt
atmospherically
ea-based Ortho
corrected metadata .xml
readme .txt
udm .tif

6. Product Naming | RapidEye Imagery Product Specifications Page 19

7. PRODUCT DELIVERY

Planet offers customers a number of different delivery options. This section describes those delivery
options along with the expected files and file structure that accompanies any image delivery.

7.1. Delivery Options

There are several available options for the delivery of RapidEye Satellite Imagery. These options are:
• USB Memory Stick
• USB Hard Drive
• Electronic FTP Pull

7.2. Delivery Files

Every order delivered is accompanied by a number of files which contain information about the delivery of the
order. These files provide information on general delivery issues, as well as order specific information related to
order Area of Interest (AOI) and an outline of the products delivered in the order. These files are:
 1. Delivery Readme file
 2. AOI shapefile
 3. Delivery summary shapefile
 4. Delivery summary KMZ file
 5. Delivery Checksum file

7.2.1. Delivery Readme File

A basic delivery readme file is included for all orders. This simple text file contains a number of fields with
information related to the delivery. These fields are described in Table 10

Table 10: Delivery Readme File Contents

Readme File Contents

Field Description Range/Value

ISD version Version of the ISD

Delivery Description A basic description of the delivery folder structure

File Description A description of the files and file types in the delivery

List of useful resources such as links to the RapidEye web-

Additional Reading
site, product specification document and other resources

Contact Contact Information for RapidEye

The delivery readme file is named delivery_README.txt.

7. Product Delivery | RapidEye Imagery Product Specifications Page 20

7.2.2. Area of Interest (AOI) Shapefile

Every delivery is accompanied by an AOI shapefile. The AOI shapefile consists of a vector polygon showing
the outline of the order area or area of interest (AOI) used to fulfill the delivery. The polygon is formatted as a
series of files in ESRI® shapefile format and is in a WGS84 Geographic projection.

The AOI shapefile will be named <ContractID>_aoi. ext

Example: 01234_aoi.dbf
01234_aoi.prj
01234_aoi.shp
01234_aoi.shx

7.2.3. Delivery Summary Shapefile

Every delivery is accompanied by a delivery summary shapefile. The delivery summary shapefile consists of
vector polygons showing the outline of each image delivered up to that time. If there are multiple deliveries,
this file will show the cumulative total of all images delivered for the order up to that delivery increment. The
polygons are formatted as a single ESRI® shapefile in WGS84 Geographic projection. Each polygon within the
shapefile has the following fields of metadata information:

Name: name of the image product

Tile ID: the tile ID number only for 3A products
Order ID: ID number of the order to which the image belongs
Acq Date: date of acquisition of the image
View Angle: the spacecraft off-nadir view angle for the image
UDP: unusable data percentage, a combination of percentage original blackfill and clouds
CCP: cloud cover percentage, as a percentage of usable imagery

The delivery summary shapefile is named <ContractID>_delivery.ext

Example: 01234_delivery.dbf
01234_delivery.prj
01234_delivery.shp
01234_delivery.shx

7.2.4. Delivery Summary KMZ File

Every delivery is accompanied by a delivery summary KMZ file. The delivery summary KMZ file consists of
the order AOI and vector polygons showing the outline of each image delivered up to that time. If there are
multiple deliveries, this file shows the cumulative total of all images delivered for the order up to that delivery
increment. The file is formatted to work in any software that handles KMZ files.

7. Product Delivery | RapidEye Imagery Product Specifications Page 21

When viewed in GoogleEarth® each image polygon has a distinct Planet placemarker located in the center of
the polygon. When the cursor is placed over the placemarker the tile ID will become visible. If the placemarker
is selected with the left mouse button, an information bubble will appear which contains the browse image of
the product and the following metadata fields:

Name: name of the image product

Tile ID: the tile ID number only for 3A products
Order ID: ID number of the order to which the image belongs
Acquisition Date: date of acquisition of the image
View Angle: the spacecraft off-nadir view angle for the image
Unusable Data: unusable data percentage, a combination of percentage original blackfill and clouds
Cloud Coverage: cloud cover percentage, as a percentage of usable imagery
Catalog ID: catalog ID of the image
Product Level: type of image product, i.e. 1B or 3A

The KMZ file is named <Contract ID>_delivery. kmz

Example: 01234_delivery.kmz

7.2.5. Delivery Checksum File

Each delivery contains a checksum file in md5 format. This file can be used to validate the contents of the
delivery in combination with certain software.

The delivery checksum file is named <Contract ID>_delivery.md5

Example: 01234_delivery.md5

7.3. Delivery Folder Structure

This section describes the folder structure that can be expected for the data deliveries. The folder structure
described is for deliveries made via FTP. The folder structure for USB devices may be slightly different that
those described below due to different delivery processes, but follows the same general layout.

Figure 1 below illustrates the expected folder structure for a delivery. The main folder name is comprised of two
elements: 1) a randomly generated code used for secure inscription to ensure the safety of the delivery; and 2)
the Contract ID number that is assigned to the order. A delivery will have only one Contract ID, but may consist
of multiple sub-deliveries with differing order IDs as seen in the example below.

Under this main folder a number of files and additional folders may be found. These include:

 1. The README text file

 2. The AOI shapefile

7. Product Delivery | RapidEye Imagery Product Specifications Page 22

 3. The Delivery shapefile and KMZ files
 4. The .md5 checksum file

Figure 1: Expected Product Delivery Folder Structure for FTP Deliveries

Images are delivered into sub-folders named according to the date of delivery for the products, following the
naming convention <YYYY-MM-DD>. This means that the dates shown in the delivery sub-folders correspond
to the delivery date and NOT the acquisition date, unless the products are delivered on the same day they are
acquired. Deliveries spanning multiple days will contain multiple delivery sub-folders named according to the
appropriate dates, as seen in Figure 1 . In the example above, the delivery is a mix of archive and tasked images
with the first product delivery being from the archive and the remaining products being tasked and processed
on the day of acquisition. Under each delivery sub-folder a separate folder named according to the image
product name can be found containing the expected image and associated ISD files.

For each new product delivered to the main folder the AOI shapefile, delivery shapefile and KMZ file, as well as
the checksum file are updated by overwriting the pre-existing files of the same name.

7. Product Delivery | RapidEye Imagery Product Specifications Page 23

8. IMAGE SUPPORT DATA

All RapidEye Satellite Imagery Products are accompanied by a set of image support data (ISD) files. These
ISD files provide important information regarding the image and are useful sources of ancillary data related
to the image. The ISD files are:

 1. General XML Metadata File

 2. Spacecraft Information XML Metadata File (Level 1B products only)
 3. Image RPC XML Metadata File (Level 1B products only)
 4. Browse Image File
 5. Unusable Data Mask File
 6. License File
 7. Readme File

Each file is described along with its contents and format in the following sections. In addition to the XML
metadata file, for RapidEye Level 1B Basic products in NITF format further metadata information that may
be of interest is located in the header of the NITF image file. A description of the header section of the
Level 1B NITF image file can be found in Appendix C.

8.1. General XML Metadata File

All RapidEye Satellite Imagery Products will be accompanied by a single general XML metadata file. This file
contains a description of basic elements of the image. The file is written in Geographic Markup Language
(GML) version 3.1.1 and follows the application schema defined in the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) Best
Practices document for Optical Earth Observation products version 0.9.3, see
http://www.opengeospatial.org/standards/gml .

The contents of the metadata file will vary depending on the image product processing level. All metadata
files will contain a series of metadata fields common to all image products regardless of the processing
level. However, some fields within this group of metadata may only apply to certain product levels and are
indicated as such in Table 9. In addition, certain blocks within the metadata file apply to only to certain
product types. These blocks are noted within the table.

8.1.1. Contents

Table 11 describes the fields present in the General XML Metadata file for all product levels.

Table 11: General XML Metadata File Field Descriptions

General Metadata File Field Contents

Field Description Range/Value Conditions

“metaDataProperty” Block

EarthObservationMetaData

Identifier Root file name of the image Nominal

8. Image Support Data | RapidEye Imagery Product Specifications Page 24

General Metadata File Field Contents

Field Description Range/Value Conditions

Status type of image, if newly acquired or produced from Acquired
status
a previously archived image Archived

downlinkedTo

acquisitionStation X-band downlink station that received image from satellite Svalbard

acquisitionDate Date and time image was acquired by satellite

archivedIn

archivingCenter Location where image is archived BER

archivingDate Date image was archived

archivingIdentifier Catalog ID of image within the RE DMS processing system

processing

DPS
processorName Name of ground processing system DPS/GXL (L3B
only)

processorVersion Version of RE DPS software used to process image

nativeProductFormat Native image format of the raw image data

license

licenseType Name of selected license for the product

resourceLink Hyperlink to the physical license file

versionIsd Version of the ISD

orderId Order ID of the product

Only for Level 3A

tileId Tile ID of the product corresponding to the RE Tile Grid
products
16U for non-at-
mospherically
16U – 16 bit corrected data
Number of bits per pixel per band in the product image
pixelFormat unsigned
file.
16S – 16 bit signed 16S for atmo-
spherically cor-
rected data

“validTime” Block

TimePeriod

Start date and time of acquisition for source image take

beginPosition
used to create product, in UTC
End date and time of acquisition for source image take
endPosition
used to create product, in UTC

8. Image Support Data | RapidEye Imagery Product Specifications Page 25

General Metadata File Field Contents

Field Description Range/Value Conditions

“using” Block

EarthObservationEquipment
platform
Identifies the name of the satellite platform used to col-
shortName RE00
lect the image

serialIdentifier ID of the satellite that acquired the data RE-1 to RE-5

orbitType Orbit type of satellite platform LEO

instrument
Identifies the name of the satellite instrument used to
shortName MSI
collect the image
sensor
sensorType Type of sensor used to acquire the data. OPTICAL
Spatial resolution of the sensor used to acquire the image,
resolution 6.5
units in meters

scanType Type of scanning system used by the sensor PUSHBROOM

acquisitionParameters
The direction the satellite was traveling in its orbit when
orbitDirection DESCENDING
the image was acquired
The angle between the view direction of the satellite and
incidenceAngle 0.0 to 90.0
a line perpendicular to the image or tile center.
illumination Sun azimuth angle at center of product, in degrees from
AzimuthAngle North (clockwise) at the time of the first image line
illumination
Sun elevation angle at center of product, in degrees
ElevationAngle
The angle from true north at the image or tile center to
azimuthAngle the scan (line) direction at image center, in clockwise 0.0 to 360.0
positive degrees.
spaceCraftView Spacecraft across-track off-nadir viewing angle used for
Angle imaging, in degrees with “+” being East and “-” being West
Date and Time at which the data was imaged, in UTC.
Note: the imaging times will be somewhat different for
acquisitionDateTime each spectral band. This field is not intended to provide
accurate image time tagging and hence is simply the im-
aging time of some (unspecified) part of the image.
“target” Block

Footprint

multiExtentOf
Position listing of the four corners of the image in geodet-
ic coordinates in the format:
posList
ULX ULY URX URY LRX LRY LLX LLY ULX ULY
where X = latitude and Y = longitude

8. Image Support Data | RapidEye Imagery Product Specifications Page 26

General Metadata File Field Contents

Field Description Range/Value Conditions

centerOf
Position of center of product in geodetic coordinate X
pos LEO
and Y, where X = latitude and Y = longitude
geographicLocation

topLeft

latitude Latitude of top left corner in geodetic WGS84 coordinates

longitude Longitude of top left corner in geodetic WGS84 coordinates

topRight

latitude Latitude of top right corner in geodetic WGS84 coordinates

longitude Longitude of top right corner in geodetic WGS84 coordinates

bottomLeft
Latitude of bottom left corner in geodetic WGS84
latitude
coordinates
Longitude of bottom left corner in geodetic WGS84
longitude
coordinates
bottomRight
Latitude of bottom right corner in geodetic WGS84
latitude
coordinates
Longitude of bottom right corner in geodetic WGS84
longitude
coordinates
“resultOf“ Block

EarthObservationResult

browse

BrowseInformation
Type of browse image that accompanies the image
type QUICKLOOK
product as part of the ISD
reference
Identifies the reference system used for the browse image
SystemIdentifier
fileName Name of the browse image file
product
For L1B images
only the root file
fileName Name of image file. name is listed and
not the individual
band files
size The size of the image product in kbytes
GeoTIFF
productFormat File format of the image product
NITF2.0

spatialReferenceSystem

8. Image Support Data | RapidEye Imagery Product Specifications Page 27

General Metadata File Field Contents

Field Description Range/Value Conditions

EPSG code =
EPSG code that corresponds to the datum and projection 4326 for L1B
epsgCode
information of the image images as images
are unprojected

geodeticDatum Name of datum used for the map projection of the image

projection Projection system used for the image

projectionZone Zone used for map projection

NN = Nearest
Neighbor
Resampling method used to produce the image. The list CC = Cubic
resamplingKernel
of possible algorithms is extendable. Convolution
MTF = Modulation
Transfer Function
numRows Number of rows (lines) in the image
numColumns Number of columns (pixels) per line in the image
numBands Number of bands in the image product 1 to 5

rowGsd The GSD of the rows (lines) within the image product

columnGsd The GSD of the columns (pixels) within the image product
radiometric Indicates whether radiometric correction has been ap- true
CorrectionApplied plied to the image false

Sensor for L1B

images
geoCorrectionLevel Level of correction applied to the image Precision Geocor-
rection for 3A and
3B images

false
elevationCorrection-
Type of elevation correction applied to the image CoarseDEM
Applied
FineDEM

atmosphericCorrec- Indicates whether atmospheric correction has been ap- true

tionApplied plied to the image false

Present only if at-

atmosphericCorrectionParameters mospheric correc-
tion is performed

Indicates whether the visibility was automatically calculated true

autoVisibility
or defaulted false

visibility The visibility value used for atmospheric correction in km

Rural
Urban
aerosolType The aerosol type used for atmospheric correction
Maritime
Desert

8. Image Support Data | RapidEye Imagery Product Specifications Page 28

General Metadata File Field Contents

Field Description Range/Value Conditions

Dry
Mid-latitude
Winter
Fall
waterVapor The water vapor category used US Standard
Subarctic Summer
Mid-latitude
Summer
Tropical

true
hazeRemoval Indicates whether haze removal was performed
false

roughTerrainCorrec- true
Indicates whether rough terrain correction was performed
tion false
true
bRDF Indicates whether BRDF correction was performed
false

mask

MaskInformation
Type of mask file accompanying the image as part of the
type UNUSABLE DATA
ISD
format Format of the mask file RASTER
referenceSys- EPSG code that corresponds to the datum and projection
temIdentifier information of the mask file
fileName File name of the mask file

cloudCoverPercent- -1 = not assessed

Estimate of cloud cover within the image
age 0-100
cloudCoverPercent-
Method of cloud cover determination AUTOMATIC
ageQuotationMode
unusableDataPer-
Percent of unusable data with the file
centage

The following group is repeated for each spectral band included in the image product

bandSpecificMetadata

1 = Blue
2 = Green
bandNumber Number (1-5) by which the spectral band is identified. 3 = Red
4 = Red Edge
5 = Near IR

startDateTime Start time and date of band, in UTC

endDateTime End time and date of band, in UTC

percentMissingLines Percentage of missing lines in the source data of this band

8. Image Support Data | RapidEye Imagery Product Specifications Page 29

General Metadata File Field Contents

Field Description Range/Value Conditions

Percentage of suspect lines (lines that contained downlink
percentSuspectLines
errors) in the source data for the band
1x1
2x2
binning Indicates the binning used (across track x along track) 3x3
1x2
2x1
none
1bit
shifting Indicates the sensor applied right shifting 2bits
3bits
4bits
111, 110, 100, or
masking Indicates the sensor applied masking
000

Provides the parameter to convert the pixel value to

radiance (for radiance product) or reflectance (for a
reflectance product). To convert to radiance/reflectance
engineering units, the pixel values should be multiplied by
this scale factor. Hence the pixel values in the product are:

Radiance product: (W/m2 sr µm) / (Radiometric Scale

radiometricScale- Factor). The Radiometric Scale Factor is expected to be
Factor 1/100. For instance, a product pixel value of 1510 would
represent radiance units of
15.1 W/m2 sr µm.

Reflectance product: Percentage / (Radiometric Scale

Factor). The Radiometric Scale Factor is expected to be
1/100. For instance, a product pixel value of 1510 would
represent 15.1% reflectance.

The remaining metadata fields are only included in the file for L1B RapidEye Basic products

spacecraftInforma- Name of the XML file containing attitude, ephemeris and

tionMetadataFile time for the 1B image

Name of XML file containing RPC information for the 1B

rpcMetadataFile
image

8.1.2. File Naming

The General XML Metadata file will follow the naming conventions described in Section 6.

Example: 2008-10-26T012345_RE3_1B-NAC_0123456789_9876543210_metadata.xml

8. Image Support Data | RapidEye Imagery Product Specifications Page 30

8.2. Spacecraft Information XML Metadata File

All RapidEye Basic (L1B) products will be accompanied by a Spacecraft Information Metadata file. This file
contains attitude, ephemeris and time information for the 1B image. This information was previously included
at the end of the main XML metadata file for the RapidEye Basic products.

8.2.1. Contents

Table 12 describes the fields present in the Spacecraft Information XML Metadata file.

Table 12: Spacecraft Information Metadata File Field Descriptions

General Metadata File Field Contents

Field Description Range/Value Conditions

“metaDataProperty” Block

Name of the 1B image the spacecraft infor-

parentImageFile
mation metadata belongs to
parentMetadataFile Name of the general metadata file of the 1B image

spacecraftAttitudeMetadata
Attitude measurements are provided for
the time period during which the image
attitudeMeasurement
data was captured. The time interval be-
tween measurements is 1 second
measurementTime UTC Time of measurement

measurements

roll Roll attitude measurement in radians

pitch Pitch attitude measurement in radians

yaw Yaw attitude measurement in radians

spacecraftEphemerisMetadata
Ephemeris measurements are provided for
the time period during which the image
data was captured. The time interval
ephemerisMeasurement between measurements is 1 second. The
coordinate system for the ephemeris
measurements is WGS-84 (Earth Centered
Earth Fixed) Cartesian coordinates
measurementTime UTC Time of measurement

position

x Position of x-axis, in meters

y Position of y-axis, in meters

z Position of z-axis, in meters

8. Image Support Data | RapidEye Imagery Product Specifications Page 31

General Metadata File Field Contents
Field Description Range/Value Conditions

velocity

vx Velocity of x-axis in meters/sec

vy Velocity of y-axis in meters/sec

vz Velocity of z-axis in meters/sec

lineTimeMetadata – This group is repeated for each band present in the image product
1 = Blue
2 = Green
bandNumber Band number of the spectral band 3 = Red
4 = Red Edge
5 = Near IR
Record for each line in the image file for
lineInfomation
this band
imagingTime UTC Date/Time line imaged
Indicates whether the line was missing true
lineMissing
from the input data false
spacecraftTemperatureMetadata
temperatureMeasurements
Average temperature (over imaging time)
averageFocalPlaneTemperature from each of the temperature sensors on the
focal plane. There are 4 temperature sensors
Average temperature (over imaging time)
averageTelescopeTemperature from each of the temperature sensors in the
telescope. There are 4 temperature sensors
cameraGeometryMetadata
Focal length of the idealized sensor mod-
focalLength
el, in meters
First detector coordinate on the x-axis of
firstDetectorXCoord the focal plane for the idealized camera
model, in meters
First detector coordinate on the y-axis of
firstDetectorYCoord the focal plane for the idealized camera
model, in meters
detectorPitch Size of the detector, in meters
radiometricCalibrationMetadata – This group is repeated for each band present in the image product

1 = Blue
2 = Green
bandNumber Band number of the spectral band 3 = Red
4 = Red Edge
5 = Near IR

perDectectorData Record for each detector

Identifies gain used to radiometrically
gain
correct the product
Identifies offset used to radiometrically
offset
correct the product

8. Image Support Data | RapidEye Imagery Product Specifications Page 32

General Metadata File Field Contents
Field Description Range/Value Conditions

Indicates where the detector is performing

true
deadDetectorIndicator outside of its specification and is consid-
false
ered to be dead

8.2.2. File Naming

The Spacecraft Information XML Metadata file will follow the naming convention described in Section 6.1.

Example: 2008-10-26T012345_RE3_1B-NAC_0123456789_9876543210_sci.xml

8.3. Image RPC XML Metadata File

All RapidEye Basic (L1B) products will be accompanied by an Image RPC Metadata file. This file contains all
of the information for using the Rational Polynomial Coefficients (RPCs) that can also be found within the
NITF image header. In this file the values are presented in XML format.

8.3.1. Contents

Table 13 describes the fields present in the Image RPC XML Metadata file.

Table 13: Image RPC Metadata File Field Descriptions

General Metadata File Field Contents

Field Description Range/Value Conditions

Name of the 1B image the spacecraft infor-
parentImageFile
mation metadata belongs to
Name of the general metadata file of the
parentMetadataFile
1B image

success 1

Error bias. 68% non time-varying error

errBias 0000.00 to 9999.99
estimate assumes correlated images
Error random. 68% non time-varying error
errRand 0000.00 to 9999.99
estimate assumes uncorrelated images
0000000 to
lineOff Line offset
9999999
0000000 to
sampOff Sample offset
9999999
latOff Geodetic latitude offset ±90.0000

longOff Geodetic longitude offset ±180.0000

8. Image Support Data | RapidEye Imagery Product Specifications Page 33

General Metadata File Field Contents

Field Description Range/Value Conditions

heightOff Geodetic height offset ±9999

lineScale Line scale 000001 to 999999

sampScale Sample scale 000001 to 999999

latScale Geodetic latitude scale ±90.0000

longScale Geodetic longitude scale ±180.0000

heightScale Geodetic height scale ± 9999

Line numerator coefficient: 20 coefficients

-1.000000
for the polynomial in the Numerator of the
E+00
r sub n equation
lineNumCoeff 1..20 to
+1.000000
All values are expressed in scientific nota-
E+00
tion.
Line denominator coefficient: 20 coeffi-
cients for the polynomial in the Denomina-
-1.000000E+00
tor of the r sub n equation
lineDenCoeff 1..20 to
+1.000000E+00
All values are expressed in scientific nota-
tion.
Sample numerator coefficient: 20 coeffi-
cients for the polynomial in the Numerator
-1.000000E+00
of the r sub n equation
sampNumCoeff 1..20 to
+1.000000E+00
All values are expressed in scientific nota-
tion.
Sample denominator coefficient: 20 coeffi-
cients for the polynomial in the Denomina-
-1.000000E+00
tor of the r sub n equation
sampDenCoeff 1..20 to
+1.000000E+00
All values are expressed in scientific nota-
tion.

8.3.2. File Naming

The Image RPC XML Metadata file will follow the naming convention described in Section 6.1.

Example: 2008-10-26T012345_RE3_1B-NAC_0123456789_9876543210_rpc.xml

8. Image Support Data | RapidEye Imagery Product Specifications Page 34

8.4. Browse Image File

All RapidEye Satellite Imagery Products will be accompanied by a reduced resolution browse image file.

8.4.1. Contents

The browse image file contains a reduced-resolution representation of the product. It has the same aspect
ratio and radiometric corrections as the product, but with a pixel resolution of roughly 48m. The GeoTIFF
file will contain 1 or 3 bands and will be an 8-bit image that is georeferenced to a WGS84 Geographic (Lati-
tude-Longitude) projection. The 3-band browse image contains the Red, Green, and Blue bands. The single
band browse image will contain the first available band in the following list: Red, Red Edge, Green, Blue, or
NIR. Since the browse image is derived from the parent image, the re-projection into geographic coordinates
may create areas of blackfill on the borders of the browse image that will not be present in the full resolution
parent image.

8.4.2. File Naming

The Browse Image file will follow the naming conventions described in Section 6.

Example: 2008-10-26T012345_RE3_1B-NAC_0123456789_9876543210_browse.tif

8.5. Unusable Data Mask File

All RapidEye Satellite Imagery Products will be accompanied by an unusable data mask file.

8.5.1. Contents

The unusable data mask file provides information on areas of unusable data within an image (i.e. cloud and
non-imaged areas). The pixel resolution of the file will be roughly 48m. The UDM file has 11m or more of hor-
izontal geolocational uncertainty and combined with its lower resolution cannot absolutely accurately cap-
ture the edges of areas of unusable data. It is suggested that when using the file to check for usable data, a
buffer of at least 1 pixel should be considered. Each bit in the 8-bit pixel identifies whether the correspond-
ing part of the product contains useful imagery:

• Bit 0: Identifies whether the area contains blackfill in all bands (this area was not imaged by the space-
craft). A value of “1” indicates blackfill.
• Bit 1: Identifies whether the area is cloud covered. A value of “1” indicates cloud covered. Cloud detec-
tion is performed on a decimated version of the image (i.e. the browse image) and hence small clouds
may be missed. Cloud areas are those that have pixel values in the assessed band (Red, NIR or Green)
that are above a configurable threshold. This algorithm will:
• Assess snow as cloud;
• Assess cloud shadow as cloud free;
• Assess haze as cloud free.

8. Image Support Data | RapidEye Imagery Product Specifications Page 35

• Bit 2: Identifies whether the area contains missing (lost during downlink) or suspect (contains down-
link errors) data in the Blue band. A value of “1” indicates missing/suspect data. If the product does not
include this band, the value is set to “0”.
• Bit 3: Identifies whether the area contains missing (lost during downlink and hence blackfilled) or sus-
pect (contains downlink errors) data in the Green band. A value of “1” indicates missing/suspect data. If
the product does not include this band, the value is set to “0”.
• Bit 4: Identifies whether the area contains missing (lost during downlink) or suspect (contains down-
link errors) data in the Red band. A value of “1” indicates missing/suspect data. If the product does not
include this band, the value is set to “0”.
• Bit 5: Identifies whether the area contains missing (lost during downlink) or suspect (contains downlink
errors) data in the Red Edge band. A value of “1” indicates missing/suspect data. If the product does not
include this band, the value is set to “0”.
• Bit 6: Identifies whether the area contains missing (lost during downlink) or suspect (contains down-
link errors) data in the NIR band. A value of “1” indicates missing/suspect data. If the product does not
include this band, the value is set to “0”.
• Bit 7: Is currently set to “0”.

Figure 2 illustrates the concepts behind the Unusable Data Mask file.

Figure 2: Concepts behind the Unusable Data Mask file

The projection of the UDM file is identical to the projection of the parent image; however there are some
differences between the two files for the L1B Basic product. The UDM file for a L1B Basic product is the
standard GeoTIFF format for the UDM, whereas the L1B image is in NITF format. This difference in formats
leads to slightly different georeferencing between the two files and may lead to the UDM file not exactly

8. Image Support Data | RapidEye Imagery Product Specifications Page 36

overlaying the image file at the right location. For the L3A Ortho product both the UDM and image files are
in GeoTIFF format, so the UDM overlays the image tile exactly.

8.5.2. File Naming

The Unusable Data Mask file will follow the naming conventions described in Section 6.

Example: 2008-10-26T012345_RE3_1B-NAC_0123456789_9876543210_udm.tif

8.6. License File

All RapidEye Satellite Imagery Products will be accompanied by a license file for the image 8.5.1.

8.6.1. Contents

The license file is a simple text file that contains the text of the license that was selected at the time the
image order was placed. The projection of the UDM file is identical to the projection of the parent image;
however, there are some differences between the two files for the L1B Basic product. The UDM file for a L1B
Basic product is the standard GeoTIFF format for the UDM, whereas the L1B image is in NITF format. This
difference in formats leads to slightly different georeferencing between the two files and may lead to the
UDM file not exactly overlaying the image file at the right location. For the L3A Ortho product both the UDM
and image files are in GeoTIFF format, so the UDM overlays the image tile exactly.

8.6.2. File Naming

The license file will follow the naming conventions described in Section 6.

Example: 2008-10-26T012345_RE3_1B-NAC_0123456789_9876543210_license.txt

8.7. Readme File

All RapidEye Satellite Imagery Products will be accompanied by a Readme file.

8.7.1. Contents

The Readme file is a simple text file that contains a number of fields with general information regarding the
image and the files that accompany it. These fields are described in Table 14.

8. Image Support Data | RapidEye Imagery Product Specifications Page 37

Table 14: Readme File Contents

Readme File Contents

Field Description Range/Value Conditions

ISD version Version of the ISD

Copyright Text Copyright and restricted use text

Product Generation
End time when the Image Product was generated
Time

Order Number Order number that the image belongs to

A list of file names that accompany the image

File List
product file
L1B
L3A
Product Type Level of image product
L3B

Comment field for customer comments or other Empty if none

Comments
information pertaining to the order supplied

8.7.2. File Naming

The Readme file will follow the naming conventions described in Section 6.

Example: 2008-10-26T012345_RE3_1B-NAC_0123456789_9876543210_readme.txt

8. Image Support Data | RapidEye Imagery Product Specifications Page 38

APPENDIX A – GLOSSARY OF TERMS

The following list defines terms used to describe RapidEye image products.

Describes the directional dependence of reflected energy (light). BRDF is a funda-

Bidirectional Reflectance
mental optical property. It characterizes the energy scattered into the hemisphere
Distribution Function (BRDF)
above a surface as a result of incident radiation.
Non-imaged pixels or pixels outside of the buffered area of interest that are set to
Blackfill black. They may appear as pixels with a value of “0” or as “noData” depending on
the viewing software.
A digital model of the terrain surface usually derived from stereo imagery. A DEM is
Digital Elevation Model (DEM)
used to remove terrain distortions from the imagery for the geo-corrected products.
The value assigned to a pixel in a digital image. This gray density value represents
Digital Number (DN) the intensity of reflected light from a feature collected by the sensor for a particu-
lar spectral range.
The number of possible DN values for each pixel in a band of an image. The Rapid-
Dynamic Range
Eye sensor has a 12-bit dynamic range which translates into 4096 possible values.
A visible point on the ground with known geographic coordinates. GCPs can be
Ground Control Point (GCP) planimetric (latitude, longitude) or vertical (latitude, longitude, elevation). GCPs
can be collected from ground survey, maps, or orthorectified imagery.
Ground Sample Distance (GSD) The size of one pixel, as measured on the ground.
Instantaneous Field of View
The area on the ground visible to the satellite.
(IFOV)
Ancillary data that describes and defines the RapidEye imagery product. Meta-
Metadata data files differ for the two image processing types. See Section 6 for a complete
breakdown of metadata files and the fields within them.

Nadir The point on the ground that is directly below the satellite.

Off-nadir Angle The angle between nadir and the point on the ground that the satellite is pointing to.
Orthorectification The correction of distortions caused by terrain relief displacement on the image.

Pixel The smallest element comprising a digital image.

The correction of variations in data that are not caused by the object or scene
Radiometric Correction being scanned. These include correction for relative radiometric response between
detectors, filling non-responsive detectors and scanner inconsistencies.

Resolution The resampled image pixel size derived from the GSD.

Revisit Time The amount of time it takes to image the same point on the ground.

The correction of variations in the data that are caused by sensor geometry, atti-
Sensor Correction
tude and ephemeris.
The angle of the sun as seen by an observer located at the target point, as mea-
Sun Azimuth
sured in a clockwise direction from the North.

Sun Elevation The angle of the sun above the horizon.

An orbit which rotates around the earth at the same rate as the earth rotates on its
Sun-Synchronous
axis.
Swath Width The width of the ground area that is recorded by one image strip.
The correction for variations in data caused by terrain displacement due to off-nadir
Terrain Correction
viewing.

Appendix A – Glossary Of Terms | RapidEye Imagery Product Specifications Page 39

APPENDIX B – TILE GRID DEFINITION

RapidEye image tiles are based on the UTM map grid as shown in Figure B-1 and B-2. The grid is defined in
24km by 24km tile centers, with 1km of overlap, resulting in 25km by 25km tiles.

Figure B-1 Layout of UTM Zones

A RapidEye tile is named by the UTM zone number, the grid row number, and the grid column number within
the UTM zone in the following format:

<ZZRRRCC>

where:

ZZ = 
UTM Zone Number (This field is not padded with a zero for single digit zones in the
tile shapefile)
RRR = Tile Row Number (increasing from South to North, see Figure B-2)
CC = Tile Column Number (increasing from West to East, see Figure B-2)

Example: Tile 547904 = UTM Zone = 5, Tile Row = 479, Tile Column = 04
Tile 3363308 = UTM Zone = 33, Tile Row = 633, Tile Column = 08

Appendix B – Tile Grid Definition | RapidEye Imagery Product Specifications Page 40

Figure B-2 Layout of Tile Grid within a single UTM Zone

Due to the convergence at the poles, the number of grid columns varies with grid row as illustrated in Figure B-3.

Appendix B – Tile Grid Definition | RapidEye Imagery Product Specifications Page 41

Figure B-3 Illustration of grid layout of Rows and Columns for a single UTM Zone

The center point of the tiles within a single UTM zone are defined in the UTM map projection to which standard
transformations from UTM map coordinates (x,y) to WGS84 geodetic coordinates (latitude and longitude) can
be applied.
col = 1..29
row = 1..780
Xcol = False Easting + (col –15) x Tile Width + Tile Width/2
Yrow = (row – 391) x Tile Height + Tile Height/2

where:

X and Y are in meters

False Easting = 500,000m
Tile Width = 24,000m
Tile Height = 24,000m
The numbers 15 and 391 are needed to align to the UTM zone origin.

Appendix B – Tile Grid Definition | RapidEye Imagery Product Specifications Page 42

APPENDIX C – NITF FILE STRUCTURE AND CONTENTS

The RapidEye Basic image product is delivered as a series of NITF 2.0 files. The NITF 2.0 file format contains
image data and basic metadata about the image. The structure of the NITF file for the RapidEye Basic prod-
uct is shown in Figure D-1.

Figure C-1: Structure of NITF 2.0 File

The contents of the NITF File Header are detailed in Table 15. The “Req” column indicates whether the field is
required. Valid values are:

R = Required
C = Conditional
<> = null data allowed

Table 15: NITF File Main Header Contents

NITF File Main Header Contents

Field Description Range/Value REQ Conditions

FHDR File type and version NITF02.00 R

Complexity level required to fully interpret all

components of the file.

Note: Multi-spectral products will have a mini-

CLEVEL mum CLEVEL of 06. 03, 05, 06 or 99 R

A CLEVEL of 99, as required by specifications,

is assigned for imagery greater than 2GB, which
may adversely affect some software packages.

STYPE Standard System type “ “ (4 spaces) R

Appendix C – Nitf File Structure And Contents | RapidEye Imagery Product Specifications Page 43
NITF File Main Header Contents

OSTAID Originating station identification code RE R

A list of file names that accompany the image

FDT DDHHMMSSZMONYY R
product file

FTITLE Level of image product “RE Image Data” <R>

FSCLAS File security classification U R

Copy number of the file. Message copy number. 00000

FSCOP R
Not Used.

Contains the total number of copies of the file- 00000

FSCPYS R
Message number of copies. Not Used.

Encryption
ENCRYP 0 R
‘0’ represents no encryption
File background color in the order Red, Green,
Blue.
FBKGC 7E 7E 7E R

Set to a soft gray background

ONAME Originator’s name Blackbridge <R>

OPHONE Originator’s phone number TBD <R>

Length in bytes of the entire file, including all 000000000388 -

FL R
headers, subheaders and data 999999999998,999999999999

Appendix C – Nitf File Structure And Contents | RapidEye Imagery Product Specifications Page 44
The contents of the NITF Image Subheader are detailed in Table 16.

Table 16: NITF Subheader Contents

NITF File Main Header Contents

Field Description Range/Value REQ Conditions

IM Identifies the subheader as an image subheader IM R

ID of Image Seg-
ment from which
IID Image identifier 0000000 to 9999999 R
this image was
extracted
Image Date and Time. The image acquisition
IDATIM DDHHMMSSZMONYY R
date and time in GMT

ITITLE Image Tile “RE Image Data” <R>

Target Identifier

Where:
BBBBBBBBBB = Basic Encyclopedia identifier
TGTID 000000000000000000 <R>
OOOOO = facility OSUFFIX
CC = country code

Zero-filled

Classification level of image

ISCLAS U R
RE products are Unclassified (“U”)
Encryption
ENCRYP 0 R
“0” represents no encryption.
ISORCE Image source RE01-RE05 <R>
00000000 to
NROWS Number of significant rows in image R
99999998, 99999999
00000000 to
NCOLS Number of significant columns in image R
99999998, 99999999

INT for unsigned

INT integer pixel values
PVTYPE Pixel value type R
SI SI for signed integer
pixel values

Image representation
IREP - “MONO” is used for single-band products MONO R
- “MULTI” is used for multi-band products

ICAT Image category MS R

Actual bits-per-pixel per band

ABPP This is also related to the value in NBPP filed 12 or 16 R
of the subheader

Pixel Justification
PJUST R R
Pixels will be right justified

Image coordinate representation

ICORDS G <R>
Geographic (“G”) or MGRS (“U”)

Appendix C – Nitf File Structure And Contents | RapidEye Imagery Product Specifications Page 45
NITF File Main Header Contents

Field Description Range/Value REQ Conditions

Image Geographic Location.

Represents the 4 corners of the image, and
is presented in image coordinate order:
(0,0),(0,NCOLS),(NROWS,NCOLS),
IGEOLOn (NROWS,0).
When ICORDS = “G”, IGEOLO is expressed
(where: as latitude and longitude and uses the for- ddmmssXdddmmss C
n = 1..4) mat ddmmssXdddmmssY where “ddmmss”
represents degrees, minutes, and seconds
of latitude with “X” represents North (N) or
South (S), and “ddmmss” represents degrees,
minutes, and seconds of longitude with “Y”
representing East (E) or West (W).

NICOM Number of free text image comments 1 R

Image comments #n, where n = 1...5

ICOMn C
Empty by default – configurable text.
Image compression form.
IC NC R
Compression is not supported.
NBANDS Number of data bands 1 R
n Band representation, where n= 1..NBANDS
th

IREPBANDn Note: When NBAND in blank <R>

subheader = 1 this field contains all spaces
nth Band subcategory – center wavelength of
ISUBCATn RE spectral centers <R>
the band, where n = 1..NBANDS
nth Band image filter condition, where n =
IFCn 1..NBANDS N R
N – no filters
Number of LUTs for the nth Image Band, Required only if
NLUTSn where n = 1..NBANDS 0 <R> the PVTYPE is INT
Not used. hence the inclusion
ISYSNC Image sync code – reserved for future use 0 R
Indicates how image pixels are stored.
IMODE “B” represents band interleaved by block, and B R
is used on all products.
Number of blocks per row. Contains the num-
NBRP ber of image blocks (1 block = 1024 x 1024 0001 - 9999 R
pixels) in the horizontal direction
Number of blocks per column. Contains the
NBPC number of image blocks (1 block = 1024 x 0001 - 9999 R
1024 pixels) in the vertical direction
NPPBH Number of pixels per block horizontal 1024 C

NPPBV Number of pixels per block vertical 1024 R

Number of bits per pixel per band.
RE 12 bits product imagery is stored via 16.bit
NBPP integers. 16 R
This is also related to the value in ABPP of the
subheader.

Appendix C – Nitf File Structure And Contents | RapidEye Imagery Product Specifications Page 46
NITF File Main Header Contents

Field Description Range/Value REQ Conditions

Image display level.

IDLVL 001 R
All products consist of a single level.
Attachment level of image.
IALVL All products are created with the minimum 001 R
attachment level.
Note: The coor-
dinates are line/
column numbers.
Image Location. This is the location of he Important when the
first pixel of the first line of the image and is image is a portion of
ILOC represented as RRRRRCCCCC, where RRRRR 0000000000 R a larger image (this
represents row values and CCCCC represents is not the case for
column values. the RE Basic product
so the field will
always be constant
0000000000).

Magnification factor of the image relative to

IMAG the original source image. 1.0 R
Set 10 1.0 to signify no magnification

User defined image data length.

UDIDL 00000 R
Not used.
Image extended subheader data length.
This is the sum of the length of all the Con-
trolled Extensions (CETAG) appearing in the
IXSHDL 00003 - 99999 R
image plus 3:(sum(CEL + 11)) + 3, where 11 is
the size of the extension header and 3 is the
length of the IXSOFL field.
Image extended subheader overflow.
IXSOFL 000 C
Not used.
RPC00B
CETAG Controlled unique extension type identifier STDIDC R
USE00A
Contains the length in bytes of the data con-
tained in the CEDATA field
CEL 1041 = length of RPC00B data 1041, 89 or 107 R
89 = length of STDIDC data
107 = length of USE00A data

Appendix C – Nitf File Structure And Contents | RapidEye Imagery Product Specifications Page 47
The contents of the RPC00B portion of the NITF Image Subheader are detailed in Table 17.

Table 17: RPC00B (Rapid Positioning Capability) portion of the NITF Subheader Contents

NITF RPC00B Portion of the Subheader Contents

Field Description Range/Value REQ Conditions

FIELD1 (SUCCESS) 1 R
Error bias. 68% non time-varying error estimate 0000.00 to
FIELD2 (ERR_BIAS) R
assumes correlated images 9999.99
Error random. 68% non time-varying error esti- 0000.00 to
FIELD3 (ERR_RAND) R
mate assumes uncorrelated images 9999.99
0000000 to
FIELD4 (LINE_OFF) Line offset R
9999999
0000000 to
FIELD5 (SAMP_OFF) Sample offset R
9999999
FIELD6 (LAT_OFF) Geodetic latitude offset ±90.0000 R

FIELD7 (LONG_OFF) Geodetic longitude offset ±180.0000 R

FIELD8 (HEIGHT_OFF) Geodetic height offset ±9999 R

000001 to
FIELD9 (LINE_SCALE) Line scale R
999999
000001 to
FIELD10 (SAMP_SCALE) Sample scale R
999999
FIELD11 (LAT_SCALE) Geodetic latitude scale ±90.0000 R

FIELD12 (LONG_SCALE) Geodetic longitude scale ±180.0000 R

FIELD13 (HEIGHT_SCALE) Geodetic height scale ±9999 R

Line numerator coefficient: 20 coefficients for
-1.000000E+00
FIELD14 the polynomial in the Numerator of the r sub n
to R
(LINE_NUM_COEFF1..20) equation
+1.000000E+0
All values are expressed in scientific notation.
Line denominator coefficient: 20 coefficients for
-1.000000E+00
FIELD15 the polynomial in the Denominator of the r sub
to R
(LINE_DEN_COEFF1..20) n equation
+1.000000E+00
All values are expressed in scientific notation.
Sample numerator coefficient: 20 coefficients for
-1.000000E+00
FIELD16 the polynomial in the Numerator of the r sub n
to R
(SAMP_NUM_COEFF1..20) equation
+1.000000E+00
All values are expressed in scientific notation.
Sample numerator coefficient: 20 coefficients for
-1.000000E+00
FIELD16 the polynomial in the Numerator of the r sub n
to R
(SAMP_NUM_COEFF1..20) equation
+1.000000E+00
All values are expressed in scientific notation.
Sample denominator
-1.000000E+00
FIELD17 coefficient: 20 coefficients for the polynomial in
to R
(SAMP_DEN_COEFF1..20) the Denominator of the r sub n equation
+1.000000E+00
All values are expressed in scientific notation.

Appendix C – Nitf File Structure And Contents | RapidEye Imagery Product Specifications Page 48
The contents of the STDIDC portion of the NITF Image Subheader are detailed in Table 18.

Table 18: STDIDC (Standard ID Extension Format) portion of NITF Subheader Contents

NITF STDIDC Portion of the Subheader Contents

Field Description Range/Value REQ Conditions

ACQ_DATE Date and time of image acquisition in GMT. yyyymmddhhmmss R

Identifies the specific RE vehicle as the source of

MISSION RE01 - RE05 R
image data

Identifies pass in the day of the image acquisition.

PASS 01 -16 R
A new day starts at 00:00Z

OP_NUM Image Operation Number. 000 R

Start Segment ID. Identifies images as separate piec-

START_SEGMENT es (segments) within an imaging operation. AA R
This field will always contain AA.
Reprocess Number. Indicates whether data is origi-
REPRO_NUM nal or has been reprocessed or enhanced. 00 R
We assume “00” for original data.
Replay/Regeneration. Indicates remapping or regen-
eration mode of imagery.
REPLAY_REGEN 000 R
We assume “000” as all images are produced from
raw data.
Starting Column Block. The first column block in
START_COLUMN the image. 001 R
All products start at 1.
Starting Row Block. The first row block in the
START_ROW image. 00001 R
All products start at 1.

Ending segment ID of the file.

END_SEGMENT AA R
This field will always contain AA.

Ending Column Block. The last column block in the

END_COLUMN 001 - 999 R
image.

END_ROW Ending Row Block. The last row block in the image. 00001 - 99999 R

Location. Natural reference point (in WGS84) of the

sensor, expressed as latitude and longitude
The format used is ddmmXdddmmY, where “ddmmX”
LOCATION represents degrees and minutes of latitude with “X” ddmmXdddmmY R
representing North (N) or South (S), and “dddmmY”
represents degrees and minutes of longitude with “Y”
representing East (E) or West (W).

Appendix C – Nitf File Structure And Contents | RapidEye Imagery Product Specifications Page 49
The contents of the USE00A portion of the NITF Image Subheader are detailed in Table 19.

Table 19: USE00A (Exploitation Usability) portion of the NITF Subheader Contents

NITF STDIDC Portion of the Subheader Contents

Field Description Range/Value REQ Conditions

Angle to north. Angle to true north measured clockwise

ANGLE_TO_NORTH 0 - 360 R
from first row of the image.
Mean Ground Sample Distance. The geometric mean of the
MEAN_GSD cross and along scan center-to-center distance between 000.0 to 999.9 R
contiguous ground samples, in inches.
Dynamic range of the pixels in image.

“255” is used for 8-bit products,

“4095” is used for 12-bit products, 00255, 04095 or
DYNAMIC_RANGE <R>
“65535” is used for 16-bit products. 65535

This corresponds to the bit-depth value in ABPP of the file

subheader section.
Obliquity angle. This is the angle between the local NED
OBL_ANG 00.00 to 90.00 <R>
horizontal plane and the optical axis of the image.
Roll angle. Roll is the rotation angle about the platform roll
ROLL_ANG axis. Roll is positive if the platform positive pitch axis lies ±90.00 <R>
below the NED horizontal plane.

N_REF Number of reference lines in image. 00 R

REV_NUM Orbit revolution number at the time of exposure. 00001 to 99999 R

Number of image segments.

N_SEG 001 R
This value is always set to 1.
Maximum Lines Per Segment. This is the number of rows
per image segment. 000001 to
MAX_LP_SEG <R>
999999
This value is equal to NROWS value in subheader.
Sun Elevation. Degrees measured from the target plane +90.0
SUN_EL at intersection of the optical line of sight with the earth’s or R
surface at the time of the first image line. 999.9

Sun azimuth. Degrees measured from true North clock- 000.0 to 359.0
SUN_AZ wise (as viewed from space) at the time of the first or R
image line. 999.9

Appendix C – Nitf File Structure And Contents | RapidEye Imagery Product Specifications Page 50