A 50-cm color image of Belmont Park in Elmont, New York, USA collected on October 6, 2014 by Pléiades 1A; and then a 1.5-m SPOT 6 image of the same horse track collected on August 28, 2014. These images have custom processing and color balancing applied by Apollo Mapping. PLEIADES © CNES 2019, Distribution Airbus DS. SPOT © Airbus DS 2019.

For the unofficial start of summer in the Western Hemisphere we checked out one of the sites of the FIFA Under 20 World Cup, and for the June edition of the Pléiades 1 – SPOT 6/7 Stadium of the Month we head back to the States to check out the site of the last leg of the Triple Crown, Belmont Park in Elmont, New York.

About the Venue: Located just east of New York City where Queens County and Nassau County meet, the vision for Belmont Park started in 1902 when a group of investors bought a 650-acre tract of land originally called Foster’s Meadow. Over the next three years, a horse race track modeled after its European predecessors was built, opening on May 4, 1905. Since then, Belmont Park has seen significant changes, for example when it was closed in 1963 due to structural issues and then re-opened in 1968. In 2012, Belmont Park was significantly remodeled with new HD TVs installed throughout, increased restaurant and amenity space as well as improved public transit. The Grandstand at Belmont Park is one of the largest at a horse racing track, with seating for 33,000 fans and then standing room for 67,000 more.

Fun Factoids: (1) The Triple Crown of thoroughbred horse racing is comprised of the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness Stakes and finally the Belmont Stakes. The oldest and longest of the Triple Crown races, the Belmont Stakes started in 1867 and has been run at Belmont Park since 1905 (minus 1963 to 1967 during its remodel where it was held at Aqueduct Racetrack also in New York). (2) The 2018 edition of the Belmont Stakes drew 90,327 fans where they watched Justify win the American Triple Crown for the 13^th time in history – meaning that Justify won all three of the Triple Crown races. (3) The record attendance for the Belmont Stakes was 120,139 in 2004 where the fans watched Smarty Jones fail to win the final leg of the Triple Crown. In 2015, the attendance of the Belmont Stakes was capped at 90,000 fans to assure a good experience for all attendees.

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.