In June, we were in Chicago with a look at Fletcher’s favorite baseball “cathedral” and in July we move back to Europe with a check-in on a modern stadium in Warsaw, Poland, i.e. National Stadium.

Name & Its Origin: Opened in 2012 as National Stadium which is homage to this stadium’s central location in Poland’s largest city, Warsaw, in 2015, the name was officially changed to PGE Narodowy (or PGE National) after PGE, the state-run utility company, won the naming rights.

Location: PGE Narodowy is centrally located in the Praga Poludnie borough of Warsaw right along the banks of the Vistula River at about 270 feet (82 meters) above sea level.

A 50-cm color image of National Stadium in Warsaw, Poland collected on September 9, 2016 by Pléiades 1B. To see this stadium in SPOT 6/7 1.5-meter resolution, check out this month’s feature on SPOTMaps. This image has custom processing and color balancing applied by Apollo Mapping. © CNES 2017, Distribution Airbus Defense and Space / Spot Image S.A., France, all rights reserved.

Stadium Capacity/Size, Architect & Build Date: Built for the 2012 Euro Cup matches, surprisingly few details could be found about the construction of the stadium. According to Wikipedia, construction on National Stadium started on May 15, 2008, with its doors opening during January of 2012 and the first international football (soccer) friendly played against Portugal on February 29, 2012. The stadium was designed and built by the German firm, Alpine Bau, at a cost of approximately 430 million Euros, much of which came from European Union development funds. PGE Narodowy is reported to hold 58,145 fans, 56,826 fans for UEFA games and then 72,900 for concerts when the playing field can be used as seats.

Type of Field Surface: PGE Narodowy features a natural grass surface grown by Hendriks Graszoden BV of the Netherlands; and since the stadium is multifunctional, the grass can be rolled up and taken off the field for non-sporting events.

Key Sports Teams: From the research we did, it appears that PGE Narodowy is the official home of the Polish national football team. While we would expect a Polish league football team to play there as well, it does not appear that is the case, at least on a regular basis.

Most Popular Yearly Event: Besides a slew of national-level football matches, PGE Narodoway hosts car racing events, American football games and even a concert series. In summer 2017, Coldplay, Robbie Williams and Depeche Mode will play at National Stadium – it’s so cool that the city uses the stadium for these events!

Fun Factoids: (1) The outside of PGE Narodowy looks like a woven basket formed by translucent material that is red and silver, a shout out to the national flag of Poland. It features a retractable roof that fans out from a central spire. (2) That stadium has 1,765 parking spots, 965 bathrooms and 900 seats for media representatives. (3) As of May 31, 2017 when this article was written, Depche Mode tickets ranged in price from $95.43 for a single ticket to $1,925.97!

The 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 for your next geospatial project.

A variety of Pléiades 1 products are available from both a growing 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 this satellite constellation.

Working with Pléiades 1 since the launch of the first twin satellite, P1A, we have noticed that:

• Airbus Defense and Space is able to deliver on their tasking feasibilities.

The Apollo Mapping sales team can answer any questions you might have about the high resolution satellite constellation, Pléiades 1. We can be reached anytime at (303) 993-3863 or sales@apollomapping.com.

More sample images and technical information about Pléiades 1A and 1B can be found on our website here.