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Posted on March 2nd, 2021

The Pléiades 1 – SPOT 6/7 Stadium of the Month – Lucas Oil Stadium

Last month were in the south-east of the USA to check out the site of America’s most watched sporting event, and for the March edition of the Pléiades 1 – SPOT 6/7 Stadium of the Month we travel to the site of another of America’s favorite sporting events that being Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, Indiana – the site of March Madness’ final games.


A 50-cm color image of Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, Indiana, USA (check out the HD video display!) collected on November 13, 2020 by Pléiades 1B; and then a 1.5-m SPOT 6 image of the same stadium collected on November 7, 2020. These images have custom processing and color balancing applied by Apollo Mapping. PLEIADES © CNES 2021, Distribution Airbus DS. SPOT © Airbus DS 2021.

About the Stadium: Located in downtown Indianapolis just to the east of the White River, construction on Lucas Oil Stadium started on September 20, 2005 as a replacement for the RCA Dome which would allow for expansion of the convention center. The stadium opened three years later on August 16, 2008 and hosted its first sporting event on the 22nda football game between Noblesville High School and Fishers High School. Built for about $720 million, the funds for construction were raised by the State of Indiana, the City of Indianapolis and from the Indianapolis Colts – the football team which calls Lucas Oil home. The naming rights for the venue were actually sold before it opened in 2006 to Lucas Oil Products for $122-million over a 20-year contract.

Fun Factoids: (1) Given the ongoing COVID crisis here in the USA, the NCAA has decided to play all of its Men’s Basketball March Madness games in the state of Indiana to reduce possible exposures and infections from extended periods of travel. The vast majority of the 67 games will be played in Indianapolis between various college arenas and other local stadiums. The Final Four games are scheduled for Lucas Oil Stadium on April 3rd and 5th. (2) The outside of Lucas Oil Stadium features 980,000 bricks – which if lined up would extend from Indianapolis to Chicago! (3) 7,000 extra seats can be added to the stadium expanding its capacity to about 70,000 when it’s setup to host a basketball game. (4) Lucas Oil Stadium features a FieldTurf playing surface which weighs in at over 820,000 pounds!

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.

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