For the start of summer, we checked out the site of the NCAA Division 1 Outdoor Track and Field championships but for June we pivot directions slightly with a trip across the Atlantic for this Pléiades 1 – SPOT 6/7 Stadium of the Month with a look at the site of the ongoing Wimbledon Championships, The All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club.

A 50-cm color image of the All England Club in London, United Kingdom collected on April 8, 2017 by Pléiades 1A; and then a 1.5-m SPOT 6 image of the same stadium collected on June 10, 2017. These images have custom processing and color balancing applied by Apollo Mapping. PLEIADES © CNES 2018, Distribution Airbus DS. SPOT © Airbus DS 2018.

Name & Its Origin: Originally called The All England Croquet Club in 1868, the name appears to be, well, a very descriptive one of what goes on here. In 1877, the name was changed to The All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club (AELTC); then in 1892 they dropped ‘Croquet Club’ only to add it back again!

Location: The All England Club, as locales sometime refer to it as, is located in southwest London in the Wimbledon district. AELTC is some 41 miles (66 kilometers) from the shores of the Atlantic Ocean at about 70 to 80 feet (21 to 24 meters) above sea level.

Stadium Capacity/Size, Architect & Build Date: In the early days of the AELTC, it appears that the atmosphere was more of a weekend picnic or festival with no formal seating. All of that changes in 1922 when an 11,000 or so spectator tennis stadium was opened and the hugely popular July tennis championship was renamed the Wimbledon Games. During World War II, it appears that the stadium was damaged and then rebuilt. Today there are 19 championship level tennis courts on the AELTC grounds with on-going construction to expand the seating of the two center courts as well as a series of other major and minor improvements.

Type of Field Surface: Are you surprised to find out that the grass courts of Wimbledon have been the subject of independent research by The Sports Turf Research Institute (STRI)? I doubt you are! In 2001, STRI recommended changing the seed mix on the grass courts to 100% perennial ryegrass from a 70% rye and 30% creeping red fescue mix for improved durability.

Key Sports Teams: Unlike many of the stadiums we have covered in this ongoing series, AELTC is the home of a key tennis grand slam championship, Wimbledon, and is not home to a sports team. Wimbledon is the oldest tennis tournament in the world, the only tennis grand slam held on grass and also is often considered the most prestigious tennis event of the year.

Most Popular Yearly Event: Outside of the obvious event, Wimbledon, the grounds of the All England Club cover more than 42 acres on which there is far more than tennis and croquet courts. For example, the Wimbledon Village features a collection of shops, restaurants and bars – all with their own ongoing nightly events as you can see here!

Fun Factoids: (1) While grass courts are pervasive in rainy England, they are few and far between here in the States as this list of lawn tennis locations attests too! (2) The first lawn tennis tournament was held in 1877 at AELTC and this tournament was later recognized as the first tennis Grand Slam championship. (3) Unlike many sport events, there is a strict dress code for the participants of Wimbledon, they must dress in all white – and if they are not, umpires can tell players to change before a match. (4) Yellow tennis balls were used for the first time at Wimbledon in 1986 and apparently 54,250 balls are used during each Championship. You can check out more fun statistics about Wimbledon here.

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.

The SPOT Medium-Resolution Satellite Constellation

The SPOT medium-resolution constellation consist of seven satellites launched from 1986 to 2014 with the most recent additions, SPOT 6 and SPOT 7, launching in 2012 and 2014 respectively. SPOT 6 and SPOT 7 are twin satellites offering 1.5-m panchromatic and 6-m 4-band multispectral data with a massive footprint at 60-kilometers (km) wide. For projects requiring recent archive coverage or rapid new collections of medium-resolution data, SPOT 6/7 should be one of your top imagery sources!

More sample images and technical information about Pléiades 1A and 1B can be found on our website here; while the same can be found here for the SPOT constellation and specifically about SPOT 6/7.

The Apollo Mapping sales team can answer any questions you might have about Pléiades 1 and/or any of the SPOT satellites. We can be reached at (303) 993-3863 or sales@apollomapping.com.