Ikonos

The IKONOS satellite is the world’s first commercial satellite to collect black-and-white (panchromatic) images with 1-meter resolution, and multispectral imagery with 4-meter resolution. Imagery from the panchromatic and multispectral sensors can be merged to create 1-meter color imagery (pan-sharpened). To date, IKONOS has collected more than 250 million square kilometers of imagery over every continent. IKONOS imagery is being used for national security, military mapping, air and marine transportation, and by regional and local governments. The IKONOS satellite weighs about 1600 pounds. From a 423 mile (680 km) high, sun-synchronous orbit, IKONOS passes any given longitude at about the same local time (10:30 A.M.) daily and has a revisit time of once every three days. The satellite downlinks directly to more than a dozen ground stations around the globe.