William Atkins
Sunday, 07 September 2008 22:43
Science -
Space
Page 2 of 3
Its Sun-synchronous orbit is at 425 miles (684 kilometers) above the Earth’s surface, and at an inclination of 98 degrees. It crosses the equator at 10:30 a.m. (local time at that equator-crossing point) each day.
A Sun-synchronous orbit means that a satellite, based on its altitude and inclination, passes over any given point on the Earth’s surface at the same local solar time each day.
The resolution of the imaging system onboard the satellite allows panchromatic images (sensitive to all colors in visible light and some ultraviolet light) of the Earth’s surface to be taken to a minimum of about 16.1 inches (41 centimeters) across. The best resolution previously offered by an Earth-imaging satellite was 23.6 inches (60 centimeters).
Google’s contract gives it imaging details down to about 19.7 inches (50 centimeters).
Details of multispectral images (sensitive to all parts of the light spectrum) will be a minimum of 5.4 feet (1.65 meter).
As the satellite travels above a stretch of Earth, GeoEye-1 will be able to image about a width of 9.4 miles (15.2 kilometers).
Page three contains information on where on the Internet to do a search for images from GeoEye-1, along with information on its cost and purposes.
