DigitalGlobe Unveils New Details of WorldView-3 Satellite
April 17 2012 - 8:30AM
Marketwired
DigitalGlobe (NYSE: DGI), a leading global provider of
high-resolution earth imagery solutions, today unveiled unique
capabilities of its WorldView-3 satellite, slated for launch in
mid-2014. The announcement was made at the 28th Annual National
Space Symposium, the premier gathering of the global space
community taking place now in Colorado Springs.
WorldView-3 will extend the already industry-leading
capabilities of DigitalGlobe's commercial imaging constellation,
which today is comprised of QuickBird, WorldView-1 and WorldView-2.
This constellation captures well over 75 percent of all half-meter
resolution commercial imagery worldwide, including the most color
imagery, with an average of twice-daily revisit to any point on the
ground globally.
In addition to offering 0.31 meter resolution panchromatic and
eight-band multispectral imagery, WorldView-3 was recently licensed
by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to
collect eight-band short-wave infrared (SWIR) imagery. This will
make DigitalGlobe the only company with multi-band SWIR
capabilities, greatly expanding the range of customer applications
enabled by the DigitalGlobe constellation, and the overall value
DigitalGlobe can provide to customers.
"The sensor capability enhancements planned for the WorldView-3
satellite are likely to be 'game changers'. These significant
improvements will make many of the capabilities and business models
that we could only dream about in the mid-1990s a reality," said
James A. Myer, Ph. D., founder and former CEO of Photon Research
Associates, Inc., (now retired). Photon Research Associates was
acquired by Raytheon Company in 2004.
WorldView-3 imagery is expected to make it much easier for
customers to identify small but critical details within an image
that are often indiscernible within the visible spectrum. This
increased identification capability is particularly valuable in a
growing number of automated geospatial intelligence
applications.
"As with WorldView-2 before it, WorldView-3 is the most advanced
commercial imaging satellite ever built," said Walter Scott,
founder, executive vice president and chief technical officer at
DigitalGlobe. "What's most important, however, is the increased
value these new capabilities will provide our customers. We had
many options, and after months of working with both government and
commercial customers, we chose to add the SWIR bands that will best
address our customers' needs."
WorldView-3 is currently being constructed by Ball Aerospace,
which has designed and built all of DigitalGlobe's operational
satellites. The imaging instruments, including the SWIR sensor and
optics, were engineered and are being built by ITT Exelis.
"Since 1995 Ball Aerospace has provided DigitalGlobe with
exceptionally capable and successful commercial remote sensing
satellites based on its proven product line," said Cary Ludtke,
vice president and general manager for Ball Aerospace's Civil and
Operational Space strategic business unit. "The steady evolution of
these satellites has not only fostered a new U.S. industry, but
also sustained the nation's instrument and satellite bus supplier
base."
"The Exelis-built SWIR instrument leverages mature technologies
that deliver state-of-the-art capabilities to DigitalGlobe, their
customers and end users of this information," said Rob Mitrevski,
vice president and general manager, Exelis Geospatial Systems. "Our
development and integration of the SWIR capability will proceed in
parallel with the multispectral portion of the WorldView-3
instrument. All elements are on schedule."
About DigitalGlobe DigitalGlobe is a
leading global provider of commercial high-resolution earth imagery
products and services. Sourced from our own advanced satellite
constellation, our imagery solutions support a wide variety of uses
within defense and intelligence, civil agencies, mapping and
analysis, environmental monitoring, oil and gas exploration,
infrastructure management, Internet portals and navigation
technology. With our collection sources and comprehensive
ImageLibrary (containing more than two billion square kilometers of
earth imagery and imagery products) we offer a range of on- and
off-line products and services designed to enable customers to
easily access and integrate our imagery into their business
operations and applications. For more information, visit
www.digitalglobe.com.
DigitalGlobe is a registered trademark of DigitalGlobe.
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