【】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
Teacher absolutely nails it with new homework policy
The war against homework has begun. 。A massive pile of homework after a long day at school is enough2025-08-02
Paul Ryan just wants Republicans to unite 'before the fall'
Speaker of the House Paul Ryan announced his endorsement of Republican presidential candidate Donald2025-08-02
Bill Cosby will stand trial for sexual assault
Famed comedian and alleged serial rapist Bill Cosby will be tried for the alleged sexual assault of2025-08-02
Twitter is testing out a Periscope button for select mobile users
Twitter has started testing out a new Periscope button on some mobile users, allowing you to easily2025-08-02Metallica to seek and destroy your eardrums with new album this fall
Metallica was never going to keep quiet forever.。 The band has announced its new album, Hardwired&he2025-08-02
Coral sanctuary is now a 'graveyard' due to record warm oceans, scientists find
Scientists on an expedition to Jarvis Island in the Pacific Remote Island Marine National Monument h2025-08-02
最新评论