Last month we were in the upper Midwest with a look at the site of a crucial Big Ten men’s basketball game, and for the March Pléiades 1 – SPOT 6/7 Stadium of the Month we stay in the Midwest and the Big Ten, traveling this time to the Windy City with a look at the site of a conference tournament, the United Center.
A 50-cm color image of the United Center in Chicago, Illinois, USA collected on June 29, 2018 by Pléiades 1B; and then a 1.5-m SPOT 6 image of the same stadium collected on May 24, 2018. These images have custom processing and color balancing applied by Apollo Mapping. PLEIADES © CNES 2019, Distribution Airbus DS. SPOT © Airbus DS 2019.About the Venue: Located in Chicago, Illinois between the neighborhoods of West Town and Little Italy, the United Center was built with private funds invested by Jerry Reinsdorf, owner of the NBA team the Bulls, and William Wirtz, owner of the NHL team the Blackhawks, at a cost of approximately $145 million. At a maximum capacity of 23,800, the United Center is one of the largest indoor arenas in the United States. Designed by HOK Sports Facilities Group and built by Morse Diesel and Huber, Hunt & Nichols Inc., the arena opened August 18, 1994. Being home to two different sports teams adds an extra layer of complexity to managing the stadium as you can see in this graphic of the transition from an ice hockey surface to a wooden basketball court.
Fun Factoids: (1) The men’s basketball tournament for the Big Ten returns to the United Center from March 13 to 17, 2019 for the first time since 2015 and for the 10th time in the history of the event. In 2015, the tournament was won by the Wisconsin Badgers in an 80 to 69 overtime victory against the Michigan State Spartans. (2) Cheering, yelling and whistling are common during the National Anthem, with recorded volumes reaching 122 decibels in the United Center. (3) The United Center replaced the Chicago Stadium which was built in 1929 for just $7 million. It sat about 18,000 fans (depending on the sport) with a total square footage of 600,000; while the United Center seats 20,500 with a massive total square footage of 950,000.
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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