On May 22nd, people will recognize International Day for Biological Diversity. This day raises awareness of biodiversity issues and the importance of preserving the planet’s living fabric. Charles Darwin, an English naturalist, geologist, and biologist widely known for his contributions to evolutionary biology, theorized that all species of life descended from a common ancestor, and this is now considered a fundamental scientific concept. Isla Floreana, a southern island in Ecuador‘s Galápagos Archipelago, happens to be an island that Darwin landed on when he developed the theory of evolution by natural selection. According to the Galapagos Conservancy, Floreana Island has the most interesting human history. It is the site of the first “post office,” established in 1793 by whalers, and it was the home to the first Galapagos resident – a bold Irishman named Patrick Watkins who lived there from 1807-1809. Floreana was the first island to be colonized by Ecuadorians in 1832. Of all the Galapagos Islands, Floreana is the one most altered by the presence of humans and invasive feral goats, the conservancy said. The goats and some other invasive herbivores were completely removed by the Galapagos National Park in 2007, but a devastated landscape no longer fit to sustain Floreana’s native wildlife was left in their wake. Conservation work is now focused on restoring healthy populations of Galapagos racers (snakes), hawks, barn owls, rails, three species of finch, and the Floreana Mockingbird. Now extinct on the main island of Floreana, the Floreana mockingbird can only be found in two small populations located on two small satellite islands off the coast of Floreana. Conservation efforts are also focused on educating the local human population on sustainable methods of agriculture, solid waste management, and collecting and filtering drinking water. The 30-cm WorldView Legion image featured here was collected on January 20, 2025, and has custom processing and color balance applied by Apollo Mapping. (Satellite Imagery © 2025 Maxar Technologies)In this monthly article, we travel the world to check out unique, fun and sometimes a bit weird 30-centimeter (cm) color imagery samples from the WorldView constellation. In April, we checked out images of the Thomas Jefferson Memorial in Washington, D.C. For this edition of the 30-cm Color WorldView Image of the Month, we feature an image of Isla Floreana in the Galapagos Islands.
30-cm WorldView-3 (WV3) launched in late 2014, WorldView-4 (WV4) launched in late 2016 and then the first WorldView Legion satellites launched in 2024. Taken together, this is 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 WorldView 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.
- Additional Spectral Bands
- If spectral analysis is part of your project, then no other satellite can match WorldView-3 and WorldView Legion with their 8 bands of visible and near-infrared data; and then 8 shortwave infrared bands (WV3 only) which are crucial for geological studies.
- Better Positional Accuracy
- With accuracies of 3.5-m CE90% or better (without ground control even!), the 30-cm WorldView constellation has no rivals for its enhanced positional accuracy.
- Daily Revisits
- With multiple WorldView-3 and WorldView Legion satellites orbiting our planet, daily revisits are available for most locations.
- 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 kilometers (sq km) of high-resolution data per day per satellite (though WV4 is dead now).
- When fully launched, WorldView Legion will feature six 30-cm satellites, significantly boosting the collection capacity of this leading high-resolution constellation.
If you are interested in WorldView-3, WorldView-4 and/or WorldView Legion 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; WV4 samples and information can be found here; and then finally here is more information about WorldView Legion.
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