In October, we looked at Ayodhya, India, where the largest annual celebration of Diwali is held. This month for the Pléiades 1 – Pléiades Neo Point of Interest, we check out Flamenco Beach on Culebra Island, Puerto Rico, which features rusting, graffiti-covered tanks.
These three satellite images show the beautiful pristine Flamenco Beach on the island of Culebra in Puerto Rico. You can see the sandy white beach and richly hued water in the first 50-cm Pléiades 1B color image from Janiary 24, 2021. The second image is of the same location collected by 30-cm color Pléiades Neo 4 on January 24, 2023. In the final image, red circles encompass the tanks to make them easier to spot for our readers. These images have custom processing and color balancing applied by Apollo Mapping. PLEIADES © CNES 2025, Distribution Airbus DS.About the Point of Interest: Puerto Rico’s Culebra Island offers a picturesque view of turquoise waters and white sand beaches, along with a wildlife sanctuary. But this Caribbean paradise also features surprising landmarks in the form of rusting tanks from World War II covered in graffiti.
Fun Factoids: (1) In 1901, after Spain ceded Puerto Rico to the U.S., President Theodore Roosevelt allocated all of the public land on Culebra to the Navy. Those lands were used for test landings and ground maneuvers; and starting in 1936, for bombing practice. (2) In the summer of 1970, the residents of Culebra began non-violent protests with a goal of ending its naval occupation. For seven months, they marched, held sit-ins, and created blockades, and finally the Navy agreed to phase out their use of the island as a testing ground. By 1975, the Navy had cleared out of Culebra. (3) The Navy left behind lots of gear, including several massive tanks. While much of it was cleaned up, the huge tanks could not be moved and were simply left to rust. (4) The salty sea winds worked on the metal, causing it to rust and crumble and the locals took to covering the abandoned hulks in layers of paint. (5) Today, the tanks remain and have become a unique feature of the otherwise pristine beach. New graffiti is continually added atop the old, giving the old war machines an almost cheerful new life.
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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