A 1.5-meter color image collected by SPOT 6 over Augusta National Golf Club on March 13, 2013. Given that it is spring in the Northern Hemisphere, the sun elevation is lower than is ideal to collect new imagery and thus the shadows are deeper and colors less intense. © CNES 2012, Distribution Astrium Services / Spot Image S.A., France, all rights reserved.
A 50-cm color imagery collected by Pléiades 1B over Augusta National. This imagery is also impacted by low sun elevation. © CNES 2012, Distribution Astrium Services / Spot Image S.A., France, all rights reserved.With the start of the month we welcome in April showers, blooming flowers and dreams of the Masters Tournament. Held each year at the hallowed 18-hole golf course, Augusta National Golf Club, the Masters is the first and perhaps most prestigious of the US PGA’s four majors. This year’s tournament starts April 11th and will feature all the big names in professional golf. Is this the year Tiger returns to his majors’ form? Or maybe it’s Lefty’s year to shine and win his fourth Masters? Perhaps it’s an outsider’s turn to take the crown such as Steve Stricker or Matt Kuchar?
One thing I can assure you of is this, while our guess on who will win the tournament would be about as accurate as Punxsutawney Phil’s ability to predict spring, we do have access to some of the most recent satellite images collected over Augusta National that exist. On March 13th, Astrium Services tasked both of their brand new satellites, Pléiades 1B and SPOT 6, to collect color imagery over the golf course and surrounding areas. Both of the images feature cloud-free views of Augusta National collected just 30 days before the start of the Masters!
For those of you who have never worked with these new satellites, here is a summary of their key specifications:
- Pléiades 1B
- Spectral Bands: panchromatic & 4-band multispectral (RGB + NIR)
- Product Resolution: 50-cm panchromatic & 2-m multispectral
- Revisit Time: 1 day
- Footprint Width: 20 km (at nadir)
- Launch Dates: December 2, 2012
- SPOT 6
- Spectral Bands: panchromatic, 4-band multispectral (blue, green, red and NIR)
- Product Resolution: 1.5-m panchromatic, 6-m multispectral
- Average Revisit Time: at most 1 day (once SPOT 7 is operational)
- Footprint Width: 60 km (at nadir)
- Launch Date: September 9, 2012
For more information about Pléiades 1B and/or SPOT 6, please contact the Apollo Sales team at (303) 993-3863 or sales@apollomapping.com.
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