BackForwardInstrument:  WV60 

Instrument details
Acronym WV60
Full name World View 60 camera
Purpose Very-high-resolution land imagery
Short description One panchromatic channel, 400-900 nm
Background Evolution of BGIS-2000 on QuickBird
Scanning Technique Pushbroom, 35,000 detector array. Swath 17.6 km addressable by tilting the satellite in a variety of operating modes within a Field-of-Regard of 900 km. Stereo capability both along-track and cross-orbits
Resolution 0.50 m
Coverage / Cycle Global coverage in 6 months, in daylight; in few days (down to 3) by strategic pointing
Mass 380 kg Power 250 W Data Rate 800 Mbps

 

Providing Agency DigitalGlobe
Instrument Maturity Flown on operational programme
Utilization Period: 2008 to 2023
Last update: 2021-08-31
Detailed characteristics
Satellites this instrument is flying on

Note: a red tag indicates satellites no longer operational, a green tag indicates operational satellites, a blue tag indicates future satellites

Instrument classification
  • Earth observation instrument
  • Passive optical radiometer or spectrometer
  • High resolution optical imager
WIGOS Subcomponents
  • Subcomponent 4
  • GNSS radio occultation (commercial)
  • High-resolution optical observation constellation (commercial)
Mission objectives
Primary mission objectives
  • Fire fractional cover
Evaluation of Measurements

The following list indicates which measurements can typically be retrieved from this category of instrument. To see a full Gap Analysis by Variable, click on the respective variable.

Note: table can be sorted by clicking on the column headers
Note: * Primary mission objective.
VariableRelevance for measuring this variableOperational limitationsExplanation
Cloud cover5 - marginalInfrequent coverage.. Daylight only.Panchromatic channel
Fire fractional cover*2 - very highCloud sensitive.. Infrequent coverage.. Daylight only.Panchromatic channel with high resolution, for fire boundary detection
Glacier cover5 - marginalCloud sensitive.. Long time for mapping.. Daylight only.Panchromatic channel with high resolution, for glacier boundary detection
Glacier topography5 - marginalCloud sensitive.. Long time for mapping.. Daylight only.Panchromatic channel and cross-track steering capability for stereoscopy between images from neighbouri orbits
Ice sheet topography5 - marginalCloud sensitive.. Long time for mapping.. Daylight only.Panchromatic channel and cross-track steering capability for stereoscopy between images from neighbouring orbits
Land surface topography5 - marginalCloud sensitive.. Long time for mapping.. Daylight only.Panchromatic channel and cross-track steering capability for stereoscopy between images from neighbouring orbits
Snow cover5 - marginalCloud sensitive.. Infrequent coverage.. Daylight only.Panchromatic channel
Sea-ice cover5 - marginalCloud sensitive.. Daylight only.Panchromatic channel