Why space matters: Imaging satellite operations, part 16—“Blue are the streets, And all the trees are too”

Who could forget 1999’s most famous dance single? But does anyone remember the song’s group?? Enough dancing—time to talk about satellite operations until we’re blue in the face (sorry, couldn’t resist). As mentioned in the previous lesson, this lesson is about DigitalGlobe’s WorldView-2 satellite and the blue spectrum of its imagery payload. Mainly, what is […]

Why space matters: Imaging satellite operations, part 15—decrypting the world with waves of color

Finally, we get to discuss the colors used for DigitalGlobe’s imagery satellites—or satellite, as we will be focusing (no pun intended—these satellites can’t really focus, remember) on WorldView-2. According to DigitalGlobe’s Basic Imagery literature, WorldView-2’s image sensors use eight different colors to look at the Earth: Coastal, Blue, Green, Yellow, Red, Red Edge, Near-IR (InfraRed)1, […]

Finding the truth of a country’s economic state, from space

Surely, most people have seen this comparison of pictures. The comparison showing the differences in lights in China and North Korea from an image taken in 1992 versus an image taken in 2010. China changed a lot and of course North Korea not at all. Well, some people are attempting to sift more truth of […]

DigitalGlobe shows Colorado flood imagery

DigitalGlobe has been very active the past few days. Earlier this week, in this aside “Why space matters–especially when it’s close to home,” I noted they were collecting images of the floods. Well, now they’ve posted these images taken during and after the massive floods here in Colorado. There is a short explanation of what’s being […]

So does this mean we’re to expect Zuul and Vince Clortho?

http://ghostbusters.wikia.com/wiki/File:TempleofGozerbio.pngThat’s right, both the Keymaster and the Gatekeeper might be coming soon. It just depends on when NOAA’s GOES-R (get it?) makes its appearance. As we all know, both Zuul and Vince Clortho will show, possibly in a refrigerator, before GOES-R. This latest Satnews article gives some nice details on GOES-12’s retirement, and what typically happens to […]