Powerful Earth surveillance satellite launched
AUG 14, 2014
DOI: 10.1063/PT.5.028171
BBC : A new and powerful surveillance satellite was launched into Earth orbit yesterday from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. Known as WorldView-3 and owned by DigitalGlobe of Colorado, the satellite can image Earth’s topography with a spatial resolution of 31 cm and in 29 spectral bands, some of which enable the orbiter to peer through clouds. From its Sun-synchronous, 612-km-high orbit, WorldView-3 can identify certain minerals and the species and relative health of plants. Before the satellite’s launch, only military satellites had such imaging capability.
© 2014 American Institute of Physics
