Pléiades 1B Starts operations, First image in

Launched on December 1st , 2012 from Guiana Space Centre, Kourou, French Guiana, Pléiades 1B is the second high resolution satellite to join the Astrium constellation. Pléiades 1B will provide 50-centimeter (cm) panchromatic and 2-meter (m) 4-band multispectral (i.e. blue, green, red and near-infrared) products with the widest footprint of any high resolution satellite at 20-kilometers (km). Pléiades 1B, like Pléiades 1A, is exceptionally agile with the ability to collect 1 million square km of high resolution imagery per day. Featuring two day revisit time to any location on the planet.

Pléiades 1B and Pléiades 1A are now joined in orbit, they form a constellation of identical twin satellites operated by Astrium Services.The two satellites are phased 180° on the same orbit to ensure delivery of 50-cm products with daily revisits to any point on the globe. This very-high-resolution configuration will offer civil and military users faster  imaging of areas of interest, a regular surveillance capability and a twofold increase in coverage.

First image over Lorient in France was acquired in 5th December 2012. Lorient, or L’Orient,is a seaport in the Morbihan department in Brittany in north-western France.

Pléiades 1B First Image over Lorient in France(Copyright CNES 2012, SPOT Image)
 

 
Pléiades products supply detailed information about target areas and their surroundings:

50-cm resolution, colour, orthorectified imagery.
20-km ground footprint at nadir, up to 100 km x 100 km in strip mapping mode.
These features make Pléiades products the ideal solution for precision mapping and photointerpretation.