QuickBird, launched on October 18, 2001, and operated by DigitalGlobe, is a sun-synchronous, relatively low orbit multispectral sensor. The average revisit time is 1 to 3.5 days, depending on latitude and image collection angle. QuickBird features a 0.61m resolution panchromatic sensor and a four-band multispectral sensor having a resolution of 2.40m. Radiometric depth of QuickBird’s imagery is 11-bit. |
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| Sensor Information |
| QuickBird sensor provides the largest swath width, largest on-board storage, and highest resolution of any currently available or planned commercial satellite. QuickBird is designed to efficiently and accurately image large areas with industry-leading geolocational accuracy. The QuickBird spacecraft is capable of acquiring over 75 million square kilometers of imagery data annually (over three times the size of North America). |
| Launch Information |
Date: October 2001
Vehicle: Delta II
Location: Vandenberg Air Force Base, California |
| Orbit |
Altitude: 450 km – 98 degree, sun-synchronous inclination
Revisit frequency: 1 to 3.5 days depending on latitude at 70-centimeter resolution
Viewing angle: Agile spacecraft – in-track and cross-track pointing
Period: 93.4 minutes |
| Per Orbit Collection |
~128 gigabits (approximately 57 single area images) |
Swath Width
& Area Size |
Nominal swath width: 16.5-kilometers at nadir
Accessible ground swath: 544 km centered on the satellite ground track
Areas of interest:
- Single Area – 16.5 km x 16.5 km
- Strip – 16.5 km x 165 km
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| Metric Accuracy |
14.0m RMSE (46.0ft) |
Sensor Resolution &
Spectral Bandwidth |
Panchromatic
- 61-centimeter GSD (Ground Sample Distance) at nadir
- Black & White: 450 to 900 nanometers
- Multispectral
- 2.44-meter GSD at nadir
- Blue: 450 to 520 nanometers
- Green: 520 to 600 nanometers
- Red: 630 to 690 nanometers
- Near-IR: 760 to 900 nanometers
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| Onboard Storage |
128 Gbits capacity |
| ADCS Approach |
3-axis stabilized, star tracker/IRU/reaction wheels, C/A Code GPS |
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| Product Types |
| QuickBird Imagery Products are available in three different product types. |
| Basic Imagery is the least processed of the QuickBird product suite and is corrected for radiometric distortions, internal sensor geometry, optical distortions, and sensor distortions. Basic Imagery is neither geo-referenced nor mapped to a cartographic projection. Basic Imagery is provided with the QuickBird sensor model and is intended for sophisticated photogram metric processing such as orthorectification. Basic Imagery is a scene-based product, meaning that it can only be ordered in scene increments. Basic Imagery is available as either black and white or multispectral products. |
| Standard Imagery is a geo-referenced product, which is radio metrically calibrated, corrected for sensor and platform-induced distortions, and mapped to a cartographic projection. Standard Imagery is provided with image metadata and is intended for a wide variety of applications. Standard Imagery is an area-based product, meaning that the product is defined by your area of interest without reference to scenes. Standard Imagery is available as either black and white, multispectral, color, or pan-sharpened products. |
| Orthorectified Imagery is a terrain corrected product, which is radio metrically calibrated, corrected for sensor and platform-induced distortions, and mapped to a cartographic projection. This product is GIS-ready and can be used as an image base map for a wide variety of applications where a high degree of absolute accuracy is required. Orthorectified Imagery is an area-based product, meaning that the product is defined by your area of interest without reference to scenes. Orthorectified Imagery is available as either black and white, multispectral, color, or pan-sharpened products. |
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Quickbird Product Levels |
Product Level |
Processing |
Absolute Accuracy |
Geographic Availability |
CE90% |
RMSE |
Basic Imagery |
Sensor Corrected (Raw) |
23-meters* |
14-meters* |
Worldwide |
Standard Imagery |
Georectified |
23-meters** |
14-meters* |
Worldwide |
Ortho 1:50,000 |
Orthorectified |
25.4-meters |
15.4-meters |
Worldwide |
Ortho 1:12,000 |
Orthorectified |
10.2-meters |
6.2-meters |
US and Canada |
Ortho 1:5,000 |
Orthorectified |
4.23-meters |
2.6-meters |
Worldwide |
Ortho 1:4,800 |
Orthorectified |
4.1-meters |
2.5-meters |
US and Canada |
Custom Ortho |
Orthorectified |
variable*** |
variable*** |
Worldwide |
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*Attained using supplied Image Support Data files and a user supplied DEM, excluding sensor and viewing geometry and topographic displacement.
**Excluding viewing geometry and topographic displacement.
*** Accuracy of the Custom Ortho is determined by the accuracy and quality of customer supplied support data. |
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| QuickBird Imagery Product Options |
| Each of the QuickBird Imagery Product levels described in the previous section is available in a variety of product options. These product options use different spectral band combinations and imply differences in the pixel resolution of the final product. The QuickBird sensor collects five image bands. Following table describes the spectral bands that are used to produce each product option. |
Product Option |
Black & White |
Blue |
Green |
Red |
Near - IR |
725nm |
479.5nm |
546.5nm |
654nm |
814.5nm |
| Black & White (panchromatic) |
Y |
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| Multispectral (MS) |
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Y |
Y |
Y |
Y |
Bundle
(Pan & MS) |
Y |
Y |
Y |
Y |
Y |
Natural Color
(3-band) |
Y |
Y |
Y |
Y |
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Color Infrared
(3-band) |
Y |
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Y |
Y |
Y |
Pan-sharpened
(4-band) |
Y |
Y |
Y |
Y |
Y |
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| Ordering Requirements |
Following are the minimum area requirements for archive Quickbird imagery.
Product |
Minimum order |
Basic |
1 scene |
Standard |
25 sqkm |
Ortho |
100 sqkm |
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| Following table describes the minimum area requirements for new collection orders. |
Product |
Tasking type |
Standard |
Priority |
Rush |
Basic |
1scene |
1scene |
1scene |
Standard |
64 sqkm |
64 sqkm |
100 sqkm |
Ortho |
100 sqkm |
100 sqkm |
NA |
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