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GeoInformatics-7-2009
article using rapideye data without ground control automated high-speed high-accuracy a fully automated high-speed system to produce high-accuracy multispectral orthos and mosaics for optical data from all over the world is now possible with the availability of rapideye satellite data and graphic processing unit processor. time-sensitive applications, such as agricultural or disaster management, can now access high-accuracy orthos as soon as the data is available. by philip cheng and jiri sustera rapideye satellites rapideye is a constellation of five satellites launched simultaneously on august 29, 2008. each satellite measures less than one cubic meter and weighs 150 kg (bus + payload). on board digital recorders store image data until the satellite passes within range of the ground receiving station located in svalbard, norway. the satellites have a global revisit time in 1 day and it can image more than 4 million km2 every day. each satellite carries a pushbroom multi-spectral sensor, capable of collecting image data in five distinct bands of electromagnetic spectrum at gsd 6.5 meters: blue, green, red, red-edge, and near-infrared. rapideye's satellites are the first commercial satellites to include the red-edge band, which is sensitive to changes in chlorophyll content. additional research will be necessary to realize the full potential of the red-edge band, however, preliminary studies show that this band can assist in monitoring vegetation health, improve species separation and help in measuring protein and nitrogen content in biomass. rapideye applications there are many potential applications for rapideye satellites: (1) agriculture field boundary extraction, crop identification, acreage determination, yield forecasting, management and harvest zone mapping, damage assessment and risk management for agricultural insurances, etc. (2) forestry tree species separation, stem volume estimation, infestation detection, volume estimation, harvest mapping, etc. (3) security and emergency disaster management after tornadoes, hurricanes, drought, floods, landslides, hail, fires, earthquakes, etc. (4) environment change detection for any environmental purpose. (5) spatial solutions background imagery services, updating road network databases, ortho-image maps, etc. (6) energy and infrastructure pipeline monitoring, land cover classification, clutter mapping, etc. further information on rapideye applications can be found at http://www.rapideye.de. when comparing with other optical satellites, the biggest advantage of rapideye is the speed to provide high-resolution multispectral satellite imagery within 12-48 hours because of the constellation of five satellites. the second advantage, which will be described in this article, is the ability to generate high accuracy orthos and mosaics using no ground control information. october/november 2009 figure 1: overview image of rapideye irvine data 36
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