【】Watch Hawaii become a winter wonderland
我要评论A brand new satellite orbiting hundreds of miles above Earth's surface has just opened its eyes. 。
DigitalGlobe released the first public photo taken by the company's Earth-gazing WorldView-4 satellite, and it's a beauty. 。
The new image, taken on Nov. 26 and unveiled last week, shows Tokyo, Japan's Yoyogi National Gymnasium, one of the sites of the 1964 Olympics. 。
SEE ALSO:The first photo of Earth from space was taken 70 years ago 。WorldView-4 is the latest advanced satellite in a fleet of five DigitalGlobe spacecraft designed to beam high-resolution images of various places on Earth back to people on the ground.。
The details in the new photo are impressive, especially considering that the image was taken from 617 kilometers, or about 383 miles, above the planet. Cars and trucks can be seen on roads and in parking lots, and stretching shadows of soccer players fan out on pitches on the upper-left portion of the photo.。
Thanks for signing up! 。A close-up of part of the WorldView-4 image.Credit: IMAGE COURTESY © DIGITALGLOBE 2016 。
The difference between WorldView-4's first photo and some of the early images taken by DigitalGlobe's Ikonos satellite, which launched in 1999 and took its last photo in 2014, are like night and day. 。
Black and white Ikonos images clearly show large-scale features of different areas, but the detail is lost, limiting the number of applications available to users of the data.。Left:
。Left:。IkonosAn Ikonos satellite image of RFK stadium in Washington D.C., 1999.Credit: Image courtesy of digitalglobe。Right: 。
WorldViewWorldView-4's first image.Credit: image courtesy of Digitalglobe 。
All in all, WorldView-4 will provide 680,000 square kilometers (a bit less than the size of Texas) of imagery to DigitalGlobe's database every day. 。
Clients like Google use those images to create maps, provide help to aid organizations after disasters, and other applications. 。
DigitalGlobe isn't the only commercial company in the Earth imagery game. In fact, this is a rapidly expanding area, though DigitalGlobe stands out for its sizable government business with secretive organizations like the National Reconnaissance Office.。
Start-ups like Orbital Insight, Planet and Spire want to use small satellites and big data to analyze images quickly to track issues like deforestation and even track aircraft and provide insight about the weather. 。
Featured Video For You 。
相关文章
Dressage horse dancing to 'Smooth' by Santana wins gold for chillest horse
Okay forget everyone else -- this horse named Lorenzo is our favorite Olympic athlete now. 。Lorenzo,2025-12-15
Airbnb raises another $850 million
Airbnb is raising another $850 million, valuing the company at $30 billion, Bloomberg reported. The2025-12-15
Vevo nabs last major label as it looks to launch subscription service
Vevo, the music-video streaming platform, just snagged licensing rights for Warner Music Group, fill2025-12-15
Samsung Pass replaces usernames and passwords with the Galaxy Note 7 iris scanner
Six major banks have partnered with Samsung to improve banking security measures with the Galaxy Not2025-12-15
Richard Branson 'thought he was going to die' in bike accident
Virgin Group founder Richard Branson was recently injured in a serious bike accident while cycling o2025-12-15
Eggs and Bacon Bay? Not on animal rights group, PETA's watch!They're campaigning to change the name2025-12-15
最新评论