A 50-cm color image of London’s Wembley Stadium collected on Jily 3, 2015 by Pléiades 1A. To see this stadium in SPOT 6/7 1.5-meter resolution (and also collected on the same day!!) check out this month’s feature on SPOTMaps. Image photo enhanced by Apollo Mapping. © CNES 2015, Distribution Airbus Defense and Space / Spot Image S.A., France, all rights reserved.

For the September edition of the Pléiades 1 Stadium of the Month, we jump across the pond to the United Kingdom with a look at one of the world’s iconic homes of football, Wembley Stadium.

Name & Its Origin: The name Wembley dates back to the Anglo-Saxon era in the United Kingdom. “Wemba” is a proper name in Old English and then “Lea” is the Old English name for a meadow or clearing. The combined name, Wembley, first appeared in an official charter issued in 825 by King Beornwulf in reference to the area where the London district is now located.

Location: Wembley Stadium is situated inside Wembley Park which is part of the London Borough of Brent in the northwest section of the city. The stadium is less than a half mile away from the small River Brent which runs into the River Thames. Wembley Stadium is located from about 140 to 190 feet above sea level.

Stadium Capacity/Size, Architect & Build Date: The new Wembley Stadium replaced the original stadium with its same name that stood in the same location from 1923 to 2003. New Wembley opened its doors on May 19, 2007 when it hosted the FA Cup Final match between Chelsea and Manchester United in a match as large as they get in English Premier League football. The 90,000 seat stadium was desgined by Foster and Partners and Populous, costing some 757 million Pounds (or about $1.2 billion!) to build.

Type of Field Surface: The pitch at Wembley Stadium was replaced 11 times in three years before it was replaced with a hybrid natural grass-artificial turf surface. Artificial fibers created by Desso Sports Systems were woven into the new playing field and irrigation system during June 2010.

Key Sports Teams: Without question, when the English national football plays its home games at Wembley Stadium, the entire eyes of the United Kingdom are on arena.

Most Popular Yearly Event: Besides hosting the widely popular English national games, Wembley Stadium hosts nearly every major playoff game for the various football leagues in the country. The stadium also hosts rugby playoffs, NFL (American) football games and even massive music concerts, for example Madonna in 2008 and U2 in 2009.

Fun Factoids: (1) Wembley Stadium is the second largest in Europe and the largest fully covered stadium in the world even though the 170-foot sliding roof does not cover completely leaving the pitch partially exposed to the elements. (2) The new stadium has a circumference of 1 kilometers and it encloses 4 million square meters inside its walls and under its roof, which is the equivalent to 7 billion pints of milk! (3) Desso Sports Systems wove some 30,000 miles of artificial fibers into the new pitch surface, and that is 5,000-miles more than the circumference of the Earth.

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.