Satellite imagery can be used in a grate range of human-made activities, such as:  researching natural resources, natural disaster monitoring and impact assessment, sensitivity analysis of man’s impact, construction and design-survey works, civil and land cadastre, land-use planning and development, urban construction, geology and resources exploration, industries, agriculture and forestry, tourism, etc. Modern geoinformational technologies and all-scale mapping realization are impossible without imagery using.

Advantages and disadvantages of aerial or space imaging:

Optical satellite imagery	Aerial imaging (film product)
The price grows proportionally to space extension	The price grows less relative to space extension
Data are derived in digital form so there is no need for film processing.	Data are usually delivered in taped form, so it is needed to scan and correct imagery for flight direction.
Cloudiness is an insuperable obstacle for surface surveying. Period of revisiting time can be more than 3 days.	Airplane is available to make surveying under the clouds and can repeat it next day.
Minimum order area is only 64 sq. km.	Aerial survey of small areas is unprofitable.
No authorization is needed for satellite surveying.	There are complicated and long processes for planning, authorization and adjustment of aerial surveying.
50cm spatial resolution is considered to be the best nowadays.	It is possible to acquire imagery with spatial resolution of several centimeters depending on the flight altitude.
Imagery is derived both in visual and near infrared modes at the same time.	Imagery from tape recordings is derived separate in color and infrared modes.
One scene covers urban construction area of 10х10km and 16х16 km (IK and QB).	Picture size is 3.6х6.4 km for 1:40000 scale imagery with 1m pixel resolution.
It takes less time to create mosaic.	It takes more time to create mosaic.
Preferred surveying direction is North-South then West-East because of popularity of near-polar satellite orbits.	Surveying direction doesn’t make any difference.
Medium term of delivery is 7 days from ordering. The term can be extended for cloudy and rainy areas.	The delivery terms depend on plane availability and flying weather.
Office analysis and digital image processing are fast and comfortable.	Office operations are expensive because of labor-intensity of processes.
One satellite image covers large area, which makes needless mosaicking.	It is needed to mosaic small tiles into one whole image massive.

Imagery acquisition is available from satellites: Resurs-DK1, WORLDVIEW-1, QUICKBIRD, IKONOS, CARTOSAT, ORBVIEW, FORMOSAT-2, SPOT, ALOS, LANDSAT, TERRA (ASTER) and other foreign and native satellites. Both archive data and data from in-orbit satellites are available for acquisition.

The best way is to contact our specialists, who will help you to analyze your request and give essential recommendations. You may call +7 (495) 514-8339, or send an e-mail to sovzond@sovzond.ru , or fill in a form.

Depending on spatial resolution, it is possible to distinguish smallest objects in a picture comparable with a value of one resolution element, called pixel. Now days 50cm is considered to be the best spatial resolution.

Spatial resolution – is a size value of smallest observable object in a picture.

15 meter spatial resolution

80 meter spatial resolution

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QuickBird image in panchromatic mode with a spatial resolution of 61 cm

Panchromatic images cover the most part of electromagnetic spectrum range (450-900nm) therefore they are black and white.

Radiometric resolution ability is determined by quantity of color value gradations, which correspond in going from of hundred-per-cent black color brightness to hundred-per-cent white color brightness and expressed as quantity of bits per 1 imagery pixel. Therefore 6 bit per pixel radiometric resolution comes to 64 color value gradations (2(6) =64), 8 bit per pixel – 256 gradations (2(8) =64), 11 bit per pixel – 2048 gradations (2(11) =2048). Nowadays satellite sensors usually have 8 bit resolution, but there are some sensors having better radiometric resolution what allows to detect more details in very dark or very light areas of image (e.g. 11 bit for WorldView-1, IKONOS, QuickBird, OrbView-3 and 16 bit for EO-1)

BLUE

• To light shaded territories
• Water depth measurements in virtue of high permeable ability of a signal
• Ground/vegetation type detection
• Determination of atmosphere characteristics

GREEN

• Differentiation of clean and muddy water
• Oil sleek fields detection
• Reflection of healthy vegetation in green color

RED

• Pointing out different types of vegetation
• Chlorophyll absorption
• Limited water penetration

NIAR INFRARED (NIR)

• Coastline mapping
• Vegetation cover analysis
• Cover types differentiation

For this you need to email Sovzond@sovzond.ru or send you request by fax #+7(495) 988-7533 with references to interested area and spatial resolution. You may send geographic coordinates of requested region, vector files (MicroStation, ENVI, ESRI, MapInfo and other formats), peace of map with outlined area or just describe, name the region (e.g. within municipal district N, city M).

For ordering archive data or new acquisition you need to email Sovzond@sovzond.ru or send you request by fax #+7(495) 988-7533 with references to interested area and spatial resolution. The best way is to send accurate geographic coordinates of requested region or vector files (MicroStation, ENVI, ESRI, MapInfo and other formats). You may also leave your request at “Ordering” page of our web-site.

You will receive geo-referneced images (1:100 000 scale for high resolution) in GeoTiff format. On default images are delivered in WGS-84 map datum and UTM projection. Delivery of images in other projections and coordinate systems is also possible.

Delivered images have geometry and radiometric correction (removing difficulties because of receive path).

It depends on requested images.

You may find minimum order size in a table below:

Satellite	Archive data	New acquisition
QUICKBIRD	25 sq.km	64 sq.km
IKONOS	49 sq.km	100 sq.km
SPOT-5	21 х 21 km	21 х 21 km
IRS-1C/1D	23 х 23 km	23 х 23 km
Radarsat	50 х 50 km	50  х 50 km
Terra (Aster)	60 х 60 km
Landsat-7	185 х 170 km

Scene - is a part of datarate, received by satellite. There are differences in schemes of datarate cutting for various satellites. It is possible to order scene of optional form in case of using high resolution data (QuickBird, IKINOS). Limits – it must be min 5 km width for stretched objects swath width, space between polygon corners must be minimum 5 km also. Number of corners must be maximum 50.

You may receive archive data maximum in a week after receipt of money by “Sovzond” company.

Yes, sure. There is an ability to order new acquisition (including stereo-pairs) almost from every satellite.

Resurs-DK1, WORLDVIEW-1, ORBVIEW-3, KOMPSAT-2, IKONOS, ALOS, SPOT-5, IRS-1C/1D, TERRA (ASTER).

Stereo-pairs from IKONOS.

Accuracy for Digital Elevation Modeling (DEM) for IKONOS and QuickBird – 2-3 meters, SPOT – 8-12 meters.

Yes, according to Russian Low, images with spatial resolution of 2 meters and better are delivered to customer through 1st Department (Federal Security Service). Besides there are copyright canons for delivered images.

List of software products for imagery processing is long. Main differences between products are price, functionality and others, so it is necessary to presume what task needs to be worked out.

Sovzond Company is an exclusive distributor of ITT company software product ENVI in Russia and the CIS. For ordering software you may contact by tel. 7495 – 5148339 or by email olga@sovzond.ru .

Periodicity of satellite passing the same site at a surface is called revisit time. Different satellites have different revisit time. Below there is a list of data for some of satellites.

Satellite	Revisit time
WORLDVIEW-1	1,7-5,9 days
QUICKBIRD	1-5 days
IKONOS	1-5 days
OrbView-3	1-5 days
SPOT	26 days
IRS	25 days
Radarsat-1	3-7 days
Landsat-7	16 days

Usually remote satellites are putted at sun-synchronous orbit and pass one and the same site at a surface at the same time not depending on latitude. For example IKONOS and QuickBird satellites pass the same area at 10.30 Am, whether it is Moscow or Krasnoyarsk.

You may find information at our web-site in “Satellite imagery” page or you may contact our specialists by tel. +7(495) 988-7511, 988-7522, 514-8339 or by email sovzond@sovzond.ru

Corrected scale for some satellite imagery

Device	Spatial resolution	Expectative scale
Landsat 7 ETM+	15 m	1:100 000
SPOT 1-4	10 m	1:100 000
IRS-1C и IRS-1D	6 m	1:50 000
SPOT 5	5 m	1:25 000
EROS	1,8 m	1:10 000
OrbView-3	4 m	1:20 000
OrbView-3	1 m	1:5 000
IKONOS*	4 m	1:20 000
IKONOS*	1 m	1:5 000
QUICKBIRD	2.44 m	1:12 500
QUICKBIRD	0.61 m	1:2 000

Orthorectification – is a process of geometric correction of imagery, when some adjustments of geometric errors are carried out, which arise from topography, camera’s geometry and sensor’s errors. In a result of orthorectification planimetric accurate images come out. Orthorectification of satellite images is being operated by most part of users because they need high accuracy positioning and indiscrete scale of a whole image when are being used in some special tasks. For example it becomes possible after orthorectification:

• to make image-based measurements;
• to determine exact location of some image details;
• to get information for GIS;

SOVZOND company is on a strong track of developing project activity aside of remote sensing data distribution and tries to provide a customer with the most ultimate solutions – from image processing software delivery to turn-key solutions in  the fields of cartography, ecology, geology, agriculture and forestry, telecommunications, municipal and urban management, construction, energy, oil and gas industry and others. For these purposes SOVZOND company deploys both own resources and partners production possibilities.

On this matter you may approach SOVZOND Company or our partners. You may get information about our partners at “Partners” page.