In December, we looked at Serra de Leba Pass in Angola, which is one of the famous hair-pinned roads in the world. This month for the Pléiades 1 – Pléiades Neo Point of Interest, we check out Banwol Island in South Korea.
About the Point of Interest: Banwol Island, also known as Purple Island for good reason, sits near Bakji Island off the south-western coast of South Korea. The island, which also goes by Half Moon Island, features 400 purple-roofed buildings, purple telephone boxes, and large lavender fields. Inspired by the traditional cultivation of bellflowers and kohlrabi, this transformation began in 2015 with a goal of attracting more visitors with its creatively carved out photo zones and a sculpture dedicated to the K-pop group BTS, whose members’ phrase, “I purple you,” is closely associated with the color.
These two satellite images show Banwol Island in South Korea, surrounded by water but with its hundreds of homes adorned with purple roofs dotting the island and the purple bridge stretching across the waves to the next island. You can clearly see these features in the color 50-cm Pléiades 1A image from February 5, 2023; as well as in the 30-cm Pléiades Neo 4 image taken May 13, 2024 where the hue of purple rooves really pops. These images have custom processing and color balancing applied by Apollo Mapping. PLEIADES © CNES 2026, Distribution Airbus DS.Fun Factoids: (1) Banwol Island historically depended on fishing and agriculture, with both deep-sea and marsh fishing practiced. (2) As part of the rebrand, the residents took on the chore of planting of 21,500 meters of lavender fields, as well as fields of Aster daisies, lily magnolia, lilac, hollyhock, and purpletop vervain. (3) Since the initial revitalization efforts in 2018, more than 490,000 visitors had come to the island as of 2021. (4) Banwol Island is connected to Bakji Island and to Anjwa Island by a large, two-section wooden pedestrian bridge called the “Purple Bridge” due to its color. (5) Even the hard-boiled eggs on top of bibimbap (Korean mixed rice dish) are purple and there’s purple sweet potato ice cream. (6) And finally, of course visitors can rent a purple bike to explore what the island has to offer!
The 50-cm Pléiades 1 High-Resolution Satellite Constellation
The Pléiades 1 constellation (or at least part of it!) 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 1 and Pléiades Neo for your next geospatial projects.
A variety of Pléiades 1 products are available from both a well-established 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 both of these satellite constellations.
The 30-cm Pléiades Neo High-Resolution Satellite Constellation
Pléiades Neo is our newest high-resolution satellite constellation. The first Neo satellite went up in April 2021 and the second in August of the same year. This 30-centimeter resolution constellation will add two more satellites in the next few months and upgrade from daily to intraday revisits. Pléiades Neo has six multispectral bands with 1.2-meter resolution, including a deep blue and two infrared bands, along with a 30-centimeter resolution panchromatic band.
The archive is growing every day, and the satellites are available for new collections, making Pléiades Neo the perfect solution for site monitoring. Check out our beautiful sample images in the Pléiades Neo gallery.
More sample images and technical information about Pléiades 1 can be found on our website here; while the same can be found here for the Pléiades Neo constellation.
The Apollo Mapping sales team can answer any questions you might have about Pléiades 1 and/or Pléiades Neo. We can be reached at (303) 993-3863 or sales@apollomapping.com.
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