If you’re currently looking for satellite imagery, there are a number of different companies that you might be looking into. A satellite like the Pleiades Neo will update its images twice a day when working at full capacity, ensuring that you have full access to daily information about any location on the planet. If you’re thinking about how the science behind this works, here’s what you need to know about the process.
- A Company Creates a Satellite Constellation
The first step is for a company to create a constellation of satellites. These satellites need to have incredibly high-resolution cameras, and they may have other benefits like multispectral bands. The satellites also need to be able to communicate with computers on the ground. That way, the satellites will be able to take the pictures that the company want the satellites to take. Multiple satellites are necessary to
- The Constellation Goes Into Space
The next step is to send all the satellites in the satellite constellation into space. This doesn’t always happen all at once; a company may choose to send one satellite up to make sure everything works, then send more satellites up in future launches. Additionally, the timing of the satellite launches is typically very specific, allowing the company to make sure that the satellites are at the perfect spacing from each other.
- Orbiting Charts Are Put Into Play
Orbiting charts are an important part of this process. The satellites need to be orbiting in an extremely specific way so that they can all be taking pictures of different parts of the world at the same time. The company that made the satellites will typically also be the one that created these orbiting charts. By using the connection between the satellites and the computers down on Earth, the company is able to make sure the satellites are orbiting appropriately to capture all the right pictures at the right times.
- The Constellation Beams Images Down Regularly
The satellites that make up the satellite constellation will be beaming down its images on a regular basis. With just two satellites in the constellation, the Pleiades Neo constellation captures up to a million square kilometers of imagery every day, a figure that will double in 2022 with the addition of two more satellites. This is a massive amount of imagery, allowing the satellite constellation to consistently provide a significant amount of information to the people that need to use it.
Conclusion
The process of getting a satellite constellation up and running is incredibly complicated and very expensive. However, once the constellation is up and beaming down images to the ground, getting that imagery can be much less expensive. If you’re interested in keeping tabs on a variety of locations on the planet, no matter where those locations are, you should definitely look into buying those satellite images. You may be able to get high-resolution images sent to you with refreshes as often as twice a day.