Trends in Optical Commercial Remote Sensing Industry [Industrial Profiles]

Over the last decade, significant progress has been made in developing and launching satellites suited for earth observation, with instruments in both the optical/infrared and microwave regions of the spectra. Commercial availability of optical very high spatial resolution spaceborne imagery began more than 10 years ago with the launch of IKONOS and QuickBird, which led to an increasing interest in satellite data for mapping and precise location-based service applications. Since then, a large amount of data has been acquired, including images from newer and more complex platforms such as WorldView-1, WorldView-2, GeoEye-1, and the more recent Pleiades-1A and Pleiades-1B. Currently, the potential global capacity of very high spatial resolution imaging satellites is greater than 1.8 billion square kilometers per year, which corresponds to more than 12 times the land surface area of the earth. This capacity could potentially increase to more than 2.4 billion square kilometers per year (about 16 times the land surface area of the earth) in the near future.

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