The name IKONOS is derived from the Greek word for "image". The IKONOS satellite was launched on September 24, 1999 from xxxxxx. The satellite carries two sensors, able to collect panchromatic images with one-meter resolution and multispectral images with four-meter resolution.
IKONOS Sensors
- An 11 bit panchromatic sensor which collects a single
band of data in the spectral range of 0.45 - 0.90 microns.
- An 11 bit multispectral sensor which collects 4 bands
of data in the following spectral bands;
- Band 1 - 0.445 - 0.516 microns -
red
- Band 2 - 0.506 - 0.595 microns -
green
- Band 3 - 0.632 - 0.698 microns -
blue
- Band 4 - 0.757 - 0.853 microns -
near infrared
Satellite Orbit
IKONOS is in a sun-synchronous orbit 423 miles (681 kilometers
above the earth). Each orbit takes about 98 minutes. This orbit
that allows for nominal 10:30 AM image collection, providing consitent
images from
Revisit times
IKONOS can provide new one meter panchromatic or four-meter
multispectral images of any where in the world every three days.
If needed a 2.5 meter or better can be collected everyday of any location.
An exact revisit occurs every 142 days
11 bit data
To date most publicly available satellite sensors have
collected 8 bit, providing 256 levels of tonal variation. The two
sensors on IKONOS are 11 bit sensors, resulting in 2048 levels of tonal
variation.
Image Swath & Scene sizes
Single images of 13 km x 13 km
Single swath images of 11 km X 100 km
Horizontal Accuracy
Without ground correction the horizontal accuracy is
50 meters CE 90% or 11.8 meter RMSE. Using orthorectification a horizontal
accuracy of 4 meters CE 90% or 1.8 meters RMSE can be achieved.
Technical Advantages of IKONOS imagery over alternative
imagery
- Images are at least 6.8 miles (11 Kilometers) in dimension,
allowing for less mosaicing.
- Images are tonal balanced throughout entire images,
allowing image wide classification.
- Always in digital format, no conversion which may degrade
data quality.
- 11 bit allows for data extraction from shadow areas
- 11 bit allows for 8 fold increase in classification
separation as compared with 8 bit (256 gray scale)
- Ease of updates. Updates can be made to areas as small
as 6 square miles.