High Agility
Launched in 1999, IKONOS is still an agile satellite even by today's standards. We use IKONOS to task imagery for mapping projects in all parts of the world that require a rapid turnaround.
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IKONOS Satellite
IKONOS satellite was the first high-resolution satellite launched in 1999 with 80-cm pixels and 4-band imagery.
Sample imagery
The IKONOS Advantage
Archive Back to 1999
IKONOS features the oldest high resolution satellite imagery archive with scenes dating back to 1999 in some locations.
Mapping & Remote Sensing
With 4 high-resolution multispectral bands, IKONOS satellite imagery is appropriate for mapping projects and spectral analysis.
Overview & History
IKONOS is the world’s first high-resolution commercially-available satellite with imagery exceeding 1-meter (m) resolution. Launched into space on September 24, 1999 from a pad at Vandenberg Air Force Base, CA, IKONOS was originally owned by Space Imaging and was part of Maxar-DigitalGlobe’s constellation of high resolution satellites at the end of its ‘life’.
IKONOS features 82-centimeter (cm) panchromatic and 3.28-m 4-band multispectral resolution (i.e. blue, green, red and near-infrared/NIR). It orbits our planet at 681 kilometers (km), or the approximate distance from Los Angeles to San Francisco, CA. Until 2007, IKONOS was the industry’s most agile satellite with the ability to image large sections of earth every 3 days.
As of December 20, 2014, IKONOS is no longer collecting new data.
IKONOS Specifications
Launch Details
- Launch Date: September 24, 1999, 2:21 PM EDT
- Vehicle: Athena 2
- Site: SLC-2W, Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, USA
- Last Image Collection Date: December 20, 2014
IKONOS Components
- Total Instrument Mass: 171 kg
- Satellite Dimensions: 1.83 m x 1.57 m (hexagonal), 817 kg
- Solar Array: 1.5 kW, 3 panels
- Control Systems:
- Actuators–four reaction wheels
- Attitude measurement–two star trackers, sun sensor
- Onboard Storage Capacity: 64 gigabytes, solid state
- Ground Communication Systems:
- Imagery downlink–320 Mbits per second, X-band
- Maintenance & metadata downlink–4, 16 and 256 kilobytes per second (Kbps), S-band
- Tasking & commands uplink–2 Kbps, S-band
- Focal Plane:
- Panchromatic detector array–13,500 pixels, 12 µm per pixel
- Multispectral detector array–3,375 pixels, 48 µm per pixel
- Optical Sensor Assembly: 70-cm diameter primary mirror, 10-m focal length, 70-cm aperture
Orbit Characteristics
- Altitude: 681 km
- Period: 98 minutes
- Speed:
- In orbit–7.5 km per second
- Over ground–6.8 km per second
- Inclination: 98.1°
- Direction: sun-synchronous circular, north to south (across the lit side of Earth)
- Equatorial Crossing Time: 10:30 AM local time (approximate; across lit side of Earth)
- Observation Time: 14 minutes (time on lit side of Earth)
- Revisit Frequency: (at 40° lat)
- 3 days (30° off-nadir)
- 5 days (20° off-nadir)
Imaging System
- Spectral Bands:
- Panchromatic
- 4-band multispectral (blue, green, red and NIR)
- Sensor Resolution:
- At nadir–82-cm panchromatic & 3.2-m multispectral
- 26° off-nadir–1.0-m panchromatic & 4.0-m multispectral
- 35° off-nadir–1.17-m panchromatic & 4.68-m multispectral
- Spectral Band Wavelength Range: (in nm)
- Panchromatic–526 to 929
- Blue–445 to 516
- Green–506 to 595
- Red–632 to 698
- NIR–757 to 853
- Dynamic Range: 11-bits
Collection Capabilities
- Footprint Width: 11.3 km (at nadir), 13.8 km (at 26° off-nadir)
- Retargeting Ability: 18 sec (time to slew 200 km)
- Daily Collection Capacity: 240,000 sq km
- Georeferenced Horizontal Accuracy: 15-m CE90 (global average, dependent on terrain)
Pricing
Data Source
archive (greater than 90 days old)
Minimum Order Size
25 sq km (per area & date)
Product Type
georeferenced + natural color or 4-band
Price Per Sq Km
Completing an atmospheric correction and/or radiance conversion of IKONOS imagery?
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