In November our stop for the Pléiades 1 Stadium of the Month found us in Abu Dhabi, and this month we head to France with a look at a newly constructed soccer stadium, Parc Olympique Lyonnais.

A 50-cm color image of Parc Olympique Lyonnais in Décines-Charpieu, France collected on October 4, 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 2016, Distribution Airbus Defense and Space / Spot Image S.A., France, all rights reserved.

Name & Its Origin: Built for the local football (or soccer to us Americans) team, Olympique Lyonnais, the new stadium we are focusing on here was unimaginatively named Parc Olympique Lyonnais. The stadium is also referred to as Grand Stade OL or Stade des Lumières.

Location: Parc Olympique Lyonnais is located in Décines-Charpieu, a near suburb of Lyon, France. It is about 630 feet above sea level and one mile from the banks of the Canal de Jonage.

Stadium Capacity/Size, Architect & Build Date: The idea for Parc Olympique Lyonnais came from the owner of the Olympique Lyonnais in September 2008 to replace the smaller stadium, Gerland. Construction on the project started in the summer of 2013 by Populous and was completed in time to host its first football match on January 9, 2016. The stadium is designed to seat up to 59,186 fans with flexible configurations depending on the hosted event. In the end, the stadium cost about 600 million Euros (or at current exchange rates about $655 million).

Type of Field Surface: Parc Olympique Lyonnais has an AirFibr surface which is hybrid of natural grass rooted in a synthetic substrate. If you are interested in more details on the playing surface, here is a nice resource to check out.

Key Sports Teams: As this stadium was built for the football team, Olympique Lyonnais, their men’s and women’s teams are the primary tenants. That said, the stadium hosts a wide variety of events from rugby, to ice hockey, to concerts.

Most Popular Yearly Event: Used primarily for football, those appear to be the main events the stadium hosts, which would include any league playoff games and then UEFA Cup games (assuming Olympique Lyonnais makes the end of the year championship). In 2016, Parc Olympique Lyonnais was one of ten French stadiums to host Euro Cup games; hosting six itself.

Fun Factoids: (1) The fabric roof of Parc Olympique Lyonnais was designed to capture the sound of singing and chanting fans. (2) In fact, acoustic panels were installed behind the top row of seating to reduce echoing and to help prevent sound leakage to the surrounding community. (3) The stadium features some 58 bars, 480 food stalls or restaurants, ports for 25,000 simultaneous wireless connections and 16,000 parking spaces.

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.