Our first stop in 2016 on the Pléiades 1 Stadium of the Month tour takes us back around to the other side of the world from Singapore to one of the smallest American college football stadiums, Ocean Bank Field at FIU Stadium.

Name & Its Origin: Ocean Bank Field at FIU Stadium is the home of the Florida International University (FIU) Panthers. On August 6, 2014, FIU announced the naming rights of FIU Stadium would be given to Ocean Bank for at least three years, giving rise to the full current name of the complex.

Location: FIU Stadium is located in Miami, Florida about 10 miles west of Biscayne Bay. Miami is a sprawling metropolitan so technically the stadium is in University Park which is a census-designated place (CDP) with about 27,000 residents. FIU Stadium is only 5 to 6 feet above sea level!

A 50-cm color image of FIU Stadium collected on May 1, 2015 by Pléiades 1B. To see this stadium in SPOT 6/7 1.5-meter resolution (and even collected on the same day!) check out this month’s feature on SPOTMaps. This image has custom processing and color balancing applied by Apollo Mapping. © CNES 2016, Distribution Airbus Defense and Space / Spot Image S.A., France, all rights reserved.

Stadium Capacity/Size, Architect & Build Date: Originally called FIU Community Stadium, the facility was built as a joint venture between the university and local government agencies with only 7,500 seats, mostly as temporary bleachers. It was originally used for high school football games and FIU track events. In 2001, ahead of the inaugural season of the FIU football team, bleachers were added to increase the capacity to 17,000. In 2008, the Panthers christened their new permanent stadium in the same location with 18,000 seats. In 2012, the lower bowl of FIU Stadium was completed by RDG Planning and Design increasing capacity to 20,000 – with plans to add a second tier for a total of 40,000 to 45,000 seats.

Type of Field Surface: This is the only reference we could find to the field at FIU Stadium, apparently they have an artificial FieldTurf surface, which the pictures we have seen appear to confirm.

Key Sports Teams: FIU Stadium is home of the FIU Panthers’ football team. They have posted a record of 10 – 26 since joining Division I NCAA Football as part of the Conference USA – in fact, their record has improved each season, finishing 5 – 7 in 2015 at fourth place in the conference.

Most Popular Yearly Event: It would appear that FIU Stadium is used mainly for football and football related activities as there were no signs that it will host upcoming or has hosted past concerts, etc. There was this mention of a Miami Dolphins training camp practice/scrimmage in the stadium during summer 2015.

Fun Factoids: (1) FIU Stadium is the third smallest stadium in college football. (2) The largest crowd in the stadium’s history was 22,268 for the October 1, 2011 Homecoming football game against the Duke Blue Devils. (3) It appears that changing the name to Ocean Bank Field at FIU Stadium created a bit of local controversy – the stadium is also called The Cage as you can see in the headlines.

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.

Working with Pléiades 1 since the launch of the first twin satellite, P1A, we have noticed that:

• Airbus Defense and Space is able to deliver on their tasking feasibilities.

The Apollo Mapping sales team can answer any questions you might have about the high resolution satellite constellation, Pléiades 1. We can be reached anytime at (303) 993-3863 or sales@apollomapping.com.

More sample images and technical information about Pléiades 1A and 1B can be found on our website here.