In January, we looked at Banwol Island in South Korea, which features 400 purple-roofed buildings, purple telephone boxes, and large lavender fields. This month for the Pléiades 1 – Pléiades Neo Point of Interest, we check out the historic Longwood House on St. Helena.
These two satellite images show the historic Longwood House on St. Helena, dominating the middle of the district in which its situated. You can see in the Pléiades Neo 3 30-cm color image from March 22, 2022, how brightly colored the lay of the land and the buildings are, including the expansive gardens and trees surrounding the sprawling home. In the Pléiades 1B 50-cm color image taken June 12, 2022, the colors are more subdued which is common for data from this satellite constellation. These images have custom processing and color balancing applied by Apollo Mapping. PLEIADES © CNES 2026, Distribution Airbus DS.About the Point of Interest: Longwood House is most famously known as the former residence of Napoleon. It is now a museum owned by the French government, attracting around 7,000 visitors per year. Between 2010 and 2014, the Fondation Napoleon, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Domaines Nationaux de Sainte-Hélène ran a large restoration project of Longwood House, at a cost of nearly 2.2 million Euros.
Fun Factoids: (1) Originally built by Governor Dunbar in 1743 as a storage barn, and formerly the summer residence of the Lieutenant Governor John Skelton and his wife Mary Moore Cassamajor Skelton, Longwood House was converted for the use of Napoleon in 1815. The building was chosen to house Napoleon because it was easy to secure as it sits on an elevated plain, largely free from woodlands. (2) Longwood House, its outbuildings and gardens (the latter designed by Napoleon himself, and replanted and maintained for the last 30 years following this design) sit inside a surrounding wall, with a total area of 1 hectare. (3) In 1657, Oliver Cromwell granted the East India Company (EIC) a charter to govern Saint Helena. The following year, the company decided to fortify the island and settle it with planters. (4) Between 1791 and 1833, Saint Helena became the site of a series of experiments in conservation, reforestation, and attempts to boost rainfall artificially. (5) Longwood House has twice been voted one of the Seven Wonders of St Helena. Most island tours include a visit to both Longwood House and Napoleon’s Tomb. (6) St. Helena’s most famous exile, Napoleon Bonaparte spent most of his time here at Longwood House, arriving on Dec. 10, 1815, and dying there May 5, 1821. His tomb is also in Longwood district.
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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