Satellite reconnaissance: utility of 1-m GSD commercial satellite systems

Frank W. Gerlach

doi:10.1117/12.259754

21 November 1996 Satellite reconnaissance: utility of 1-m GSD commercial satellite systems

Frank W. Gerlach

Proceedings Volume 2829, Airborne Reconnaissance XX; (1996) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.259754
Event: SPIE's 1996 International Symposium on Optical Science, Engineering, and Instrumentation, 1996, Denver, CO, United States

Abstract

A number of commercial satellite systems have been proposed for operation in the 1997 time-frame with a capability to image at one-meter GSD. For reconnaissance applications, several key attributes determine system utility, including image interpretability, timeliness, area coverage capability, revisit frequency, satellite agility and metric accuracy. Interpretability, or the ability to extract intelligent information from an image, is driven by a variety of key parameters including edge sharpness, signal- to-noise ratio, spectral information and radiometric accuracy. Metric accuracy results from a system's ability to accurately reconstruct an image to a ground coordinate system--both with and without the use of ground control--to an accuracy required for mission planning, weapons delivery and mapping. Timeliness is driven primarily by the ability of the satellite constellation to access the same geographic location in short time intervals and at adequate GSD; sufficient agility is required to access multiple distributed point targets and collect large-area coverage for search applications. Unlike airborne reconnaissance, a satellite system's ability to deliver timely data can be adversely affected by cloud cover. Hence, frequent low-GSD revisit with dynamic tasking and collection capability are critical measures of effectiveness. Analytical descriptions and photographic simulations depict the interaction with and effect on these reconnaissance utility drivers as a function of the key system parameters.

Citation Download Citation

Frank W. Gerlach "Satellite reconnaissance: utility of 1-m GSD commercial satellite systems", Proc. SPIE 2829, Airborne Reconnaissance XX, (21 November 1996); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.259754

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KEYWORDS

Satellites

Imaging systems

Satellite imaging

Sensors

Reconnaissance systems

Image quality

Reconnaissance

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