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Instrument profile: EROS--Earth Resources Observation Satellite
The privately owned company ImageSat International operates a single satellite (EROS A). ImageSat plans to launch additional
satellites: EROS B in 2006, and EROS C in 2008.
EROS A carries a high resolution, panchromatic detector. EROS B and C will carry multispectral devices.
Usefulness to land managers
EROS products are quite affordable, and are very high resolution, so they could be quite valuable at a single preserve scale.
However, they are currently limited by the panchromatic option. Even so, the fact that EROS A images
can be ordered as stereo pairs provides interesting potential application possiblities for staff working in sites with significant
topographical challenges. ImageSat appears to sell many of its images to those interested in snooping around
the military/defense activities of countries around the world.
Costs and Contacts
$1500 to task the satellite for the acquisition of a new scene (13.5km × 13.5 km)
$5/km2 (25 km2 minimum purchase) for archived data.
Stereo pairs are twice the cost, since they require pairs of images.
http://www.imagesatintl.com--ImageSat International's web site.
http://www.imagesatintl.com/productsservices/pricingguide.shtml--Pricing guide.
http://www.imagesatintl.com/customersupport/faqs/faqs.shtml--ImageSat FAQs.
Sample images (all 1.8m panchromatic)
 Antarctica |
 Stromboli Volcano, Italy |
 Acropolis, Athens |
Useful Web Sites
See above.
Technical Specs
| Spectral data characteristics: | |||
| Eros A (Currently Active) | Eros B (Launch date: 2006) | Eros C (Launch date: 2008) | |
| Bandwidths | 0.5-0.9 micron (panchromatic) | 0.5-0.9 micron (panchromatic) 0.48-0.52 (blue) 0.54-0.58 (green) 0.64-0.68 (red) 0.82-0.9 (infrared) |
TBA (panchromatic) TBA (multispectral) |
|
Areal data characteristics: |
|||
| Sampling | 1.8 m (standard) approx. 1 m ("hypersamplinga") |
0.87 m (panchromatic) 3.48 m (multispectral) |
0.7 m (panchromatic) 2.8 m (multispectral) |
| Swath/Scene size | 13.5×13.5 km (standard) 9.5×9.5 km ("hypersamplinga") |
13.5×13.5 km | 11×11 km |
| a"hypersampling" presumably refers to a repeat sampling, averaging, or interpolation algorithm that attempts to extract maximum information from the replicated observations. | |||
References
http://www.imagesatintl.com--accessed 17 Sept. 2004
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