Monthly Update on Astrium’s High Resolution Satellite, Pléiades 1A - Apollo Mapping
Posted on January 10th, 2013

Monthly Update on Astrium’s High Resolution Satellite, Pléiades 1A

Pléiades 1A was joined in space by its twin, Pléiades 1B, during December which means a doubling of collection capacity and daily revisits for the high-resolution satellite constellation in the coming months. Keep your eyes on future editions of The Geospatial Times for updates on the status of Pléiades 1B.

Pléiades 1A has been in orbit since December 2011 and if you have not had a chance to check out any sample imagery, take a few moments and have a look at the gallery on our website. If you work with high resolution imagery, you should consider Pléiades 1A for your next geospatial project.


© CNES 2012, Distribution Astrium Services / Spot Image S.A., France, all rights reserved.

A variety of Pléiades 1A products are available from both a growing archive and as a new collection, including 50-centimeter (cm) pansharpened imagery and 50-cm panchromatic – 2-meter (m) 4-band multispectral bundles. We are happy to discuss the technical specifications, pricing and tasking options available with this new satellite constellation as Pléiades 1A will be joined in space by its twin, Pléiades 1B, later this year.

Working with Pléiades 1A for the past year, we have noticed that:

  • The imagery archive is growing and is well targeted.
  • Astrium is able to deliver on their tasking feasibilities.
  • The data is crisp with excellent color saturation so that it is on par with competitors’ 50-cm satellites.
  • Converting Pléiades 1A Digital Numbers to Physical Units

Pléiades 1A imagery is delivered (as are all satellite imagery products) with pixel values that are unit-less, sometimes referred to as digital numbers. For some applications, particularly when you are trying to compare imagery from multiple dates over the same location, it is necessary to convert this data to radiance, reflectance or albedo through an Atmospheric Correction, for instance. To do this, you will need the values contained in this recently released document on spectral modeling with Pléiades 1A imagery.

Recent Tasking Successes with Pléiades 1A

In the past month, Pléiades 1A collected three of our tasking orders in cloudy and competitive regions of the world:

  1. A cloud-free collection in central India within 3 days of order confirmation.
  2. And low-cloud cover collections along the coast of Mauritius and Djibouti within 7 days of order confirmation.
  3. To say that we are impressed with Pléiades 1A’s ability to collect high-resolution imagery within stated tasking timelines is a vast understatement!

Pléiades 1A Sample Imagery

This month we feature stunning sample imagery collected by Pléiades 1A over Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on April 16, 2012. We Photo Enhanced this 50-cm natural color imagery to improve its colors and sharpness and the results speak for themselves.

Our Contact Details For More Information About Pléiades 1A

The Apollo Mapping sales team can answer any questions you might have about Pléiades 1A. We can be reached anytime at (303) 993-3863 or sales@apollomapping.com.

More sample images and technical information about Pléiades 1A can be found here.

This entry was posted in The Geospatial Times and tagged , , , Bookmark the permalink.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

    The Geospatial Times Archive