A 50-cm color image of the Silverstone Circuit in Silverstone, United Kingdom collected on March 9, 2014 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.

From our stop in Taiwan, we push the bounds for this Pléiades 1 Stadium of the Month with a look at our first race track, the Silverstone Circuit, in the United Kingdom. Silverstone is also the site of the 2016 British Grand Prix on July 10^th, hence this is actually a timely sports story!

Name & Its Origin: It would appear that Silverstone Circuit takes its name from the small British town of Silverstone which is literally less than a half mile from the edge of the race track.

Location: The Silverstone circuit is located in south-central United Kingdom about 50 miles from London. The closest coast is about 80 miles away in each the north, west and east directions. The track is about 500 feet above sea level plus or minus 20 feet.

Stadium Capacity/Size, Architect & Build Date: The history of the Silverstone Circuit dates back to World War II when the British needed as many airfields as possible to launch bombers from. On October 2, 1948, Silverstone hosted the first post-war British Grand Prix to the delight of some 100,000 screaming fans, and the rest is, shall we say, history. The design group, POPULOUS, was responsible for the 2011 upgrades to Silverstone which added some 2,224 feet of additional track to the circuit. It would appear that 90,000 general admission and 60,000 grandstand fans crowd the track each year for the British Grand Prix.

If you enjoy reading our monthly piece on stadiums around the world, you might also enjoy this infographic which lists the 20 largest stadiums in the world. A big thanks go out to Mads Phikamphon for sharing this fun graphic!

Type of Field Surface: So we are by no means what you might call athletes here at Apollo Mapping; and well admittedly, we know even less about F1 racing. But we do know it is all about the track surface for racing, and it appears that Silverstone was more abrasive in the past with newer sections less so.

Key Sports Teams: It appears that car race tracks are more about events than per say sports teams, and so Silverstone hosts a slew of events each year. From motorcycles, to F1 racing to funny cars, it seems Silverstone has something for every type of motor sports fan.

Most Popular Yearly Event: Looking over media websites and the official website for Silverstone, it would appear that the British Grand Prix (when it hosts the event at least) is the major event of the year with its 140,000 fans in 2015.

Fun Factoids: (1) Do F1 racers also enjoy a home field advantage? It appears the answer is yes as British racers have won 22 Grand Prixes at Silverstone, the next closest nations (Germany and Australia) only have 5 apiece. (2) Silverstone donates £20,000 of tickets each year to charities throughout the local region. (3) The race track is 3.6605 miles long with 20 turns – the British Grand Prix goes around the track 52 times or 190.3204 miles. (4) The Silverstone Circuit is the second longest on the current F1 race calendar.

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.