This month’s trio of Worldview-3 images showcase a few of the lesser known hydrothermal and geological features of Yellowstone National Park. Founded in 1872, Yellowstone was the first national park of the United States. The park spans an incredible 2.2 million acres across the states of Wyoming, Idaho and Montana. It contains geological sensations like the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone River and about half of the world’s active geothermal geysers. Yellowstone hosts over 3 million visitors each year, who come to camp, hike, fish, check out the geysers, and spot local flora and fauna. The park is home to America’s largest buffalo herd, as well as other wildlife like grizzly bears and wolves. Among strongly polarized opinions, wolves were reintroduced to the park in 1995, after becoming extinct in the area some 100 years earlier. Some of the geysers and springs of Yellowstone, such as the Grand Prismatic Spring and Old Faithful, are well known throughout the world. For our 30-cm WorldView-3 imagery this month, we’ve selected photos of some of the parks lesser known, but super cool, features to share with you. All three of these 30-cm WorldView-3 images were captured on September 25, 2014. Image 1 features the Cyclops Spring and Morning Glory Pool. Image 2 displays the Solitary Geyser, so named because of its distance away from most of the other geysers in the park. The final image features Yellowstone’s Mirror Pool. These 30-cm WorldView-3 imagery has been processed by Apollo Mapping for improved perspective, clarity and colors. (Satellite Imagery © 2023 Maxar Technologies)
Every time we look at WorldView-3 and WorldView-4 (WV3/4) imagery, we are blown away. And we hope you are equally impressed with the data! In May, we looked at Australia’s Tangalooma shipwrecks. For this edition of the 30-cm Color WorldView-3/4 Image of the Month we’re headed to Yellowstone National Park nestled in the United States’ Rocky Mountain region.
WorldView-3 launched in late 2014 and WorldView-4 launched in late 2016; taken together they are the most advanced satellite constellation the commercial marketplace has ever had access to. Here are a few of the features that really set these satellites apart from the competition:
- Improved Resolution
- Higher resolution means you can see more detail in WV3/4 imagery.
- Data collected at nadir will have 31-centimeter (cm) panchromatic, 1.24-meter (m) visible and near infrared, 3.7-m SWIR (WV3 only) and 30-m CAVIS (WV3 only) bands.
- At 20 degrees off-nadir, the resolution is 34-cm panchromatic, 1.38-m visible and near infrared and 4.1-m shortwave infrared.
- Additional Spectral Bands
- If spectral analysis is part of your project, then no other satellite can match WV3 with its: 8 bands of visible and near-infrared data; and 8 shortwave infrared bands which are crucial for geological studies.
- Better Positional Accuracy
- With accuracies of 3.5-m CE90% or better (without ground control even!), WV3/4 has no rivals for its enhanced positional accuracy.
- Daily Revisits
- At 40 degrees latitude, WV3 is able to image every location daily with 1-meter or better resolution and then every 4.5 days at 34-cm resolution or better.
- WV4 is no longer collecting new imagery.
- Increased Collection Capacity
- WV3/4 feature 13.1-km swath widths (at nadir) with the ability to collect up to 680,000 square kilometer (sq km) of high-resolution data per day per satellite (though WV4 is dead now).
- Improved control movement gyros translate into larger maximum contiguous collection areas per pass, with up to ~7,500 sq km of mono imagery and ~3,000 sq km of stereo possible.
If you are interested in WorldView-3 and/or WorldView-4 imagery for your next project, please let us know by phone, 303-993-3863, or by email, sales@apollomapping.com.
You can also find more WV3 samples and technical information on our website here and then WV4 samples and information can be found here.
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