The Pléiades system was designed under the French-Italian ORFEO program (Optical & Radar Federated Earth Observation) between 2001 and 2003.
Pléiades is an optical observation system consisting of two identical satellites that deliver 50cm colour products. Operating 180 degrees apart, on a phased orbit, the Pléiades system affords a daily revisit capability on any point of the globe, to better address civilian and military requirements.
The satellites have been designed with urgent tasking in mind; images can be requested from the Pléiades satellites less than six hours before they are acquired. This functionality will prove invaluable in situations where the expedited collection of new image data is crucial, such as crisis monitoring. This improved flexibility also leads itself to corridor and persistent surveillance acquisition modes.
The Pléiades section of the phased constellation comprises of Pléiades 1A – Launched December 16, 2011 and Pléiades 1B – Launched December 02, 2012.
| Resolution | Panchromatic 0.5m (resampled) Multispectral 2m (resampled) |
|---|---|
| Swath Width | 20km |
| Products | Colour Pansharpened 0.5m (merge) Bundle 0.5m Panchromatic and 2m Multispectral |
| Bands |
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| Accuracy (No GCP’s) | 3m CE90 |
| Archive Availability | From APR 2012 |
| Programmable? | Yes: Target collection, strip mapping, stereo & tristereo and multiple acquisitions over a single target in one pass |
| Minimum area of purchase | Archive = 25 sq km New Acquisition = 100 sq km (15% cloud cover or less is successful) |
| Stereo available? | Yes (Stereo and TriStereo Acquisition Mode) |
| Largest Scale | 1:2,000 |
| Dynamic Range | 12 bits per pixel |
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