The RapidEye constellation consists of 5 mini-satellites and were simultaneously launched on 29th August 2008.
RapidEye is a full Earth Observation system designed for commercial use and includes a dedicated Spacecraft Control Centre (SCC), a constellation of five mini-satellites, a full ground segment and a data downlink ground station service.
Since it’s inception, RapidEye has offered satellite imagery for various applications with large area coverage, daily revisit times, high resolution imagery and additional multispectral capabilities. Collectively the satellites can capture up to 5 million km² a day, and annually over one billion km².
Some effective use cases with RapidEye have been land use classification, change detection, mapping, and biophysical monitoring to name a few.
Features and Benefits
- Due to RapidEye’s ability to cover large areas – regions, states and entire countries can be imaged in a short amount of time.
- Has a wide swath width of 77 km at nadir.
- Each of the 5 sensors is identical in orbit and equipment on board.
- Red Edge band has targeted sensitivity to changes in chlorophyll content.
Technical Specifications
|
Specification |
Details |
|
Satellites |
5 |
|
Orbit |
Sun-synchronous |
|
Altitude |
630km |
|
Mission Lifetime |
Deactivated 2020, archive imagery used |
|
Spatial Resolution |
6.5m at nadir (GSD)* *Ground Sample Distance |
|
Accuracy |
10 m CE90 |
|
Spectral Bands |
Blue: 440-510 nm Green: 520-590 nm Red: 630-685 nm Near infrared: 760-850 nm Red Edge: 690-730 nm |
|
Largest Scale |
1:15,000 multispectral |
|
Dynamic Range |
12 bit |
|
Coverage: |
Constellation collectively up to 5m km² per day |