Pleiades Neo
Mission and sensor parameters
Pléiades Neo (PNEO) is a constellation of four VHR optical satellites (PNEO-3, 4, 5, 6), on the same orbit, phased 90° from each other, that provides customers with 30cm panchromatic and 6-bands 1.2 m multispectral satellite imagery. The PNEO constellation provides continuity for the Pléiades mission1,2,3,4.
Mission parameters
Table 1 provides a summary of the Pleaides-NEO mission.
| Parameter | Specifications |
|---|---|
| EO Mission | Pléiades NEO |
| Mission Short name | PNEO |
| Charter Owner Agency | CNES |
| Providing Agency | CNES, Airbus |
| Date of launch | 28/04/2021 (PNEO-3), 16/08/2021 (PNEO-4), PNEO-5/6 launched in 2022. |
| Temporal coverage | 2021-04-28 - present |
| Mission status | onGoing |
| Mission Life Expected | >10 years for each satellite |
| Orbit Type | Sun-synchronous |
| Equator crossing Time | 10:30 AM local time |
| Orbit Height | 620 km |
| Orbit Period | 97.2 min |
| Inclination | 97.9° |
| Repeat Cycle | 26 days |
Table 1 - Pleiades NEO mission parameters.
Sensor specifications
Table 2 reports Instrument technical specifications and performances
| Parameter | Specifications |
|---|---|
| Imager Type | Korsch telescope, TDI (Time Delay Integration) instrument |
| Imaging Mode | PAN and MS (VIS, NIR) |
| Resolution | Very High Resolution - O-VHR (0 - 1m) |
| Ground Sampling Distance (m) at nadir | 0.3 (PAN), 1.2 (MS) |
| Viewing Angle | ± 52° |
| Nominal Swath Width | 15.3 km at nadir |
| Footprint Width | 14 km (at nadir), 19.68 km (30° off-nadir) |
| Dynamic range at acquisition | 12 bit per pixel |
| Georeferenced Horizontal Accuracy | < 5-m CE90 at nadir (global average) |
Table 2 - Pleiades NEO instrument technical specifications and performances.
Wavelength, Center wavelength, Bandwidth (or FWHM), and common band name (CBN) for each spectral band of the PNEO sensor are described in table 3.
| Spectral Band (ID) | Wavelength (nm) | Center Wavelength(µm) | Bandwidth or FWHM (µm) | CBN |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Panchromatic (PAN) | 459-817 | 0.638 | 0.358 | pan |
| Deep blue (DB) | 416-456 | 0.436 | 0.04 | coastal |
| Blue (B) | 446-520 | 0.483 | 0.074 | blue |
| Green (G) | 533-590 | 0.562 | 0.057 | green |
| Red (R) | 618-689 | 0.654 | 0.071 | red |
| Red Edge (RE) | 696-749 | 0.723 | 0.053 | rededge |
| NIR (NIR) | 768-888 | 0.828 | 0.12 | nir |
Table 3 - Pleiades NEO spectral bands.
Geometric and radiometric processing
Geometric processing
A Primary product is in sensor geometry, synthesised on a perfect single and linear push-broom array.
In the Projected product the data is georeferenced without correction from acquisition and terrain off-nadir effects.
The Ortho product is a georeferenced image in Earth geometry, corrected from acquisition and terrain off-nadir effects. The Ortho product also includes water and cloud masks.
Product processing levels and abbreviations are listed in table 4.
| Processing Level Abbreviation | Product Processing level |
|---|---|
| SEN | Primary (or Sensor) |
| PRJ | Projected |
| ORT | Ortho (unitary) |
| MOS | Ortho (mosaic) |
Table 4 - Pleiades NEO processing levels.
Radiometric processing
With the Basic radiometric processing the product represents raw data without any radiometric processing. Digital numbers quantify the energy recorded by the detector in 12 bits and thus in a 0-4095 range (stored as 16 bit in GeoTIFF). TOA reflectances can be derived from gain and offset provided in the product metadata.
Reflectance imagery is radiometrically corrected from sensor calibration and systematic atmospheric effects of the atmosphere (molecular or ‘Rayleigh’ diffusion).
In the Display radiometric option, a true color curve is computed by the Reflectance processing to obtain satellite imagery in 8-bit, optimised for a direct rendering on the screen.
Spectral modes
Table 5 provides the list of naming for the multiple PNEO spectral modes.
| Spectral processing | Spectral Mode |
|---|---|
| PAN | Panchromatic 1 band |
| MS | Multispectral 4 bands VNIR (Red, Green, Blue plus one extra band NIR) |
| MS-FS | Multispectral 6 bands Full Spectrum (MS bands>4, plus Red-Edge and Deep Blue bands) |
| PMS | Pan-sharpened 4 bands VNIR (Red, Green, Blue plus one extra band NIR) |
| PMS-N | Pan-sharpened 3 bands (visible spectrum: Red, Green, Blue bands) |
| PMS-X | Pan-sharpened 3 bands (false colour: Green, Red, NIR bands) |
| PMS-FS | Pan-sharpened 6 bands Full Spectrum (MS bands>4, plus Red-Edge and Deep Blue bands) |
Table 5 - Pleiades NEO spectral modes.
Product description
Standard products options
PNEO product includes panchromatic and/or multispectral data, delivered by the Image Production Facility under multiple standard product options that are listed in table 6.
| Geometric processing options | Primary, Projected, Ortho |
|---|---|
| Radiometric processing options | Basic, Reflectance, Display |
| Imagery Format | JPEG 2000, GeoTIFF, JPEG 2000 Optimised, NITF |
| Product Encoding | 12, 16, or 8 bits |
| Spectral band combination 1 | PAN: Panchromatic (1 band) |
| Spectral band combination 2 | Bundle: PAN + MS (4 bands RGB+NIR) |
| Spectral band combination 3 | MS: Multispectral (4 bands RGB+NIR) |
| Spectral band combination 4 | Full MS: Multispectral (6 bands) |
| Spectral band combination 5 | PMS_N: Pansharpening in natural colour (3 bands RGB) |
| Spectral band combination 6 | PMS_X: Pansharpening in false colour (3 bands RGNIR) |
| Spectral band combination 7 | PMS: Pansharpening (4 bands RGB+NIR) |
| Spectral band combination 8 | Full PMS: Pansharpening (6 bands) |
Table 6 - Pleiades NEO standard product options.
Imagery and metadata formats
Pléiades Neo is distributed using DIMAP V2. The entire dataset can be opened by selecting the DIM*.xml file. Imagery formats are: JPEG 2000, GeoTIFF, JPEG 2000 Optimised, NITF.
DIMAP Structure
PNEO products are delivered in DIMAP V2 format. Product is given in zip format. As an example: WO_000071864_1_1_SAL23061731-1_ACQ_PNEO4_00809200827130.zip
Data filename
Product filename for unitary Primary, Projected or Ortho is comprised of:
<MISSION><N>_<yyyymmddhhmmsss>_<AAA-BB>_<CCC>_<xxxx_xxxxxx_x>_*
where:
<MISSION>: PNEO<N>: mission index (e.g. 4),<yyyymmddhhmmsss>: imaging date and time,<AAA-BB>: Spectral processing {PAN, MS, MS-FS, PMS, PMS-N, PMS-X, PMS-FS},<CCC>: Processing level {SEN, PRJ, ORT, MOS},<xxxx_xxxxxx_x>: Job ID.
Example: PNEO4_202111151358313_PAN_ORT_PWOI_000071864_1_1_F_1.XML
Product Tiling
When a product is exceeding a certain limit in size, the image is broken up into tiles constituting the whole scene. Each tile reports in the filename the index of row (R1, R2, …) and column (C1, C2, etc.) componing the grid.
Ingested format
Information extracted from product annotation included in the STAC item of a Pleiades NEO dataset are listed below.
Properties
STAC item content about properties for a Pléiades NEO ORT PAN PMS-FS panchromatic and 6-band multispectral Dataset is the following:
"properties": {
"datetime": "2021-11-15T13:58:30.1Z",
"created": "2023-02-17T16:04:37.325Z",
"platform": "pneo-4",
"constellation": "pleiades-neo",
"mission": "pleiades-neo",
"instruments": [
"pneo-imager"
],
"spectral_mode": [
"PAN",
"MS-FS"
],
"sensor_type": "optical",
"gsd": 0.3,
"title": "PNEO-4 PAN MS-FS ORTHO 2021-11-15 13:58:30",
"providers": [
{
"name": "Airbus",
"description": "Pléiades Neo is the most advanced optical constellation of Airbus, with two identical 30 cm resolution satellites and optimum reactivity. Pleiades Neo allows users to unleash the potential of geospatial applications and analytics.",
"roles": [
"producer",
"processor",
"licensor"
],
"url": "https://www.intelligence-airbusds.com/imagery/constellation/pleiades-neo/"
},
{
"name": "CNES",
"roles": [
"licensor"
]
}
]
"license": "proprietary",
"disaster:call_ids": [
824
],
"disaster:resolution_class": "MR",
"cpe:cos2_id": "824-CNES-PLEIADES_NEO-PNEO4_202111151358313_PAN_MS-FS_ORTHO_000071864_1_1_A_STD",
}
Satellite
STAC item content about Satellite for a Pléiades NEO ORT PAN PMS-FS panchromatic and 6-band multispectral Dataset is the following:
"properties": {
"sat:platform_international_designator": "2021-073E"
}
View
STAC item content about View for a Pléiades NEO ORT PAN PMS-FS panchromatic and 6-band multispectral Dataset is the following:
"properties": {
"view:azimuth": 147.56948824818645,
"view:sun_azimuth": 141.48329891391222,
"view:sun_elevation": 59.78366977101399,
"view:incidence_angle": 22.745845870743427
}
Processing
STAC item content about Processing for a Pléiades NEO ORT PAN PMS-FS panchromatic and 6-band multispectral Dataset is the following:
"properties": {
"processing:level": "ORTHO",
"processing:software": {
"SPICY;Format": "1.2.11;v69.1.1"
}
}
Projection
STAC item content about Projection for a Pléiades NEO ORT PAN PMS-FS panchromatic and 6-band multispectral Dataset is the following:
"properties": {
"proj:epsg": 32622,
"proj:shape": [
11540,
17040
]
}
Geometry
STAC item content about Geometry for a Pléiades NEO ORT PAN PMS-FS panchromatic and 6-band multispectral Dataset is the following:
"geometry": {
"type": "Polygon",
"coordinates": [
[
[
-52.856014655141074,
5.331521610991151
],
[
-52.85546904535023,
5.1466461429833625
],
[
-52.73059256550336,
5.146997753615243
],
[
-52.731101501063335,
5.331885921096864
],
[
-52.856014655141074,
5.331521610991151
]
]
]
},
"bbox": [
-52.856014655141074,
5.1466461429833625,
-52.73059256550336,
5.331885921096864
]
Assets
STAC item content about assets (annotation, quicklooks and spectral bands files harvested from the source product) and EO bands for a Pléiades NEO ORT PAN PMS-FS panchromatic and 6-band multispectral Dataset is the following:
"assets": {
"PAN-R1C1": {
"type": "image/tiff",
"roles": [
"data",
"dn"
],
"title": "PAN ORTHO R1 C1",
"href": "https://.../000071864_1_1_STD_A/IMG_01_PNEO4_PAN/IMG_PNEO4_202111151358313_PAN_ORT_PWOI_000071864_1_1_F_1_P_R1C1.TIF",
"filename": "IMG_PNEO4_202111151358313_PAN_ORT_PWOI_000071864_1_1_F_1_P_R1C1.TIF",
"file:size": 0,
"eo:bands": [
{
"name": "PAN",
"description": "Raw radiometric count (DN) to TOA Radiance (L). Formulae L=DN/GAIN+BIAS",
"common_name": "pan",
"center_wavelength": 0.639,
"full_width_half_max": 0.358,
"solar_illumination": 1567.3
}
],
"raster:bands": [
{
"data_type": "uint16",
"bits_per_sample": 12,
"statistics": {
"minimum": 0,
"maximum": 4096
},
"scale": 0.12554927809165098,
"offset": 0
}
],
"product_type": "PAN",
"proj:shape": [
46160,
68160
]
},
"PAN-R1C1-wf": {
"type": "application/octet-stream",
"roles": [
"data",
"world-file"
],
"href": "https://.../000071864_1_1_STD_A/IMG_01_PNEO4_PAN/IMG_PNEO4_202111151358313_PAN_ORT_PWOI_000071864_1_1_F_1_P_R1C1.TFW",
"filename": "IMG_PNEO4_202111151358313_PAN_ORT_PWOI_000071864_1_1_F_1_P_R1C1.TFW",
"file:size": 0
},
{
etc for all other PAN tiles
},
"MS-FS-RGB-R1C1": {
"type": "image/tiff",
"roles": [
"data",
"dn"
],
"title": "MS-FS RGB ORTHO R1 C1",
"href": "https://.../000071864_1_1_STD_A/IMG_01_PNEO4_MS-FS/IMG_PNEO4_202111151358313_MS-FS_ORT_PWOI_000071864_1_1_F_1_RGB_R1C1.TIF",
"filename": "IMG_PNEO4_202111151358313_MS-FS_ORT_PWOI_000071864_1_1_F_1_RGB_R1C1.TIF",
"file:size": 0,
"eo:bands": [
{
"name": "RGB-B3-Blue",
"description": "Raw radiometric count (DN) to TOA Radiance (L). Formulae L=DN/GAIN+BIAS",
"common_name": "blue",
"center_wavelength": 0.483,
"full_width_half_max": 0.074,
"solar_illumination": 1972
},
{
"name": "RGB-B2-Green",
"description": "Raw radiometric count (DN) to TOA Radiance (L). Formulae L=DN/GAIN+BIAS",
"common_name": "green",
"center_wavelength": 0.562,
"full_width_half_max": 0.058,
"solar_illumination": 1815.4
},
{
"name": "RGB-B1-Red",
"description": "Raw radiometric count (DN) to TOA Radiance (L). Formulae L=DN/GAIN+BIAS",
"common_name": "red",
"center_wavelength": 0.655,
"full_width_half_max": 0.071,
"solar_illumination": 1551.7
}
],
"raster:bands": [
{
"data_type": "uint16",
"bits_per_sample": 12,
"statistics": {
"minimum": 0,
"maximum": 4096
},
"scale": 0.1531628120692296,
"offset": 0
},
{
"data_type": "uint16",
"bits_per_sample": 12,
"statistics": {
"minimum": 0,
"maximum": 4096
},
"scale": 0.13984058173682004,
"offset": 0
},
{
"data_type": "uint16",
"bits_per_sample": 12,
"statistics": {
"minimum": 0,
"maximum": 4096
},
"scale": 0.12547051442910917,
"offset": 0
}
],
"product_type": "MS-FS-RGB",
"proj:shape": [
11540,
17040
]
},
"MS-FS-NED-R1C1": {
"type": "image/tiff",
"roles": [
"data",
"dn"
],
"title": "MS-FS NED ORTHO R1 C1",
"href": "https://.../000071864_1_1_STD_A/IMG_01_PNEO4_MS-FS/IMG_PNEO4_202111151358313_MS-FS_ORT_PWOI_000071864_1_1_F_1_NED_R1C1.TIF",
"filename": "IMG_PNEO4_202111151358313_MS-FS_ORT_PWOI_000071864_1_1_F_1_NED_R1C1.TIF",
"file:size": 0,
"eo:bands": [
{
"name": "NED-B3-DeepBlue",
"description": "Raw radiometric count (DN) to TOA Radiance (L). Formulae L=DN/GAIN+BIAS",
"common_name": "coastal",
"center_wavelength": 0.437,
"full_width_half_max": 0.041,
"solar_illumination": 1797.1
},
{
"name": "NED-B2-RedEdge",
"description": "Raw radiometric count (DN) to TOA Radiance (L). Formulae L=DN/GAIN+BIAS",
"common_name": "rededge",
"center_wavelength": 0.724,
"full_width_half_max": 0.053,
"solar_illumination": 1349
},
{
"name": "NED-B1-NIR",
"description": "Raw radiometric count (DN) to TOA Radiance (L). Formulae L=DN/GAIN+BIAS",
"common_name": "nir",
"center_wavelength": 0.828,
"full_width_half_max": 0.12,
"solar_illumination": 1060.1
}
],
"raster:bands": [
{
"data_type": "uint16",
"bits_per_sample": 12,
"statistics": {
"minimum": 0,
"maximum": 4096
},
"scale": 0.11668611435239207,
"offset": 0
},
{
"data_type": "uint16",
"bits_per_sample": 12,
"statistics": {
"minimum": 0,
"maximum": 4096
},
"scale": 0.10115314586283634,
"offset": 0
},
{
"data_type": "uint16",
"bits_per_sample": 12,
"statistics": {
"minimum": 0,
"maximum": 4096
},
"scale": 0.08476012883539583,
"offset": 0
}
],
"product_type": "MS-FS-NED",
"proj:shape": [
11540,
17040
]
},
"MS-FS-RGB-R1C1-wf": {
"type": "application/octet-stream",
"roles": [
"data",
"world-file"
],
"href": "https://.../000071864_1_1_STD_A/IMG_01_PNEO4_MS-FS/IMG_PNEO4_202111151358313_MS-FS_ORT_PWOI_000071864_1_1_F_1_RGB_R1C1.TFW",
"filename": "IMG_PNEO4_202111151358313_MS-FS_ORT_PWOI_000071864_1_1_F_1_RGB_R1C1.TFW",
"file:size": 0
},
"MS-FS-NED-R1C1-wf": {
"type": "application/octet-stream",
"roles": [
"data",
"world-file"
],
"href": "https://.../000071864_1_1_STD_A/IMG_01_PNEO4_MS-FS/IMG_PNEO4_202111151358313_MS-FS_ORT_PWOI_000071864_1_1_F_1_NED_R1C1.TFW",
"filename": "IMG_PNEO4_202111151358313_MS-FS_ORT_PWOI_000071864_1_1_F_1_NED_R1C1.TFW",
"file:size": 0
},
{
etc for all other RGB and NED tiles
},
"metadata-PAN": {
"type": "application/xml",
"roles": [
"metadata"
],
"title": "Metadata file",
"href": "https://.../000071864_1_1_STD_A/IMG_01_PNEO4_PAN/DIM_PNEO4_202111151358313_PAN_ORT_PWOI_000071864_1_1_F_1.XML",
"filename": "IMG_01_PNEO4_PAN/DIM_PNEO4_202111151358313_PAN_ORT_PWOI_000071864_1_1_F_1.XML",
"file:size": 36638
},
"metadata-MS-FS": {
"type": "application/xml",
"roles": [
"metadata"
],
"title": "Metadata file",
"href": "https://...//000071864_1_1_STD_A/IMG_01_PNEO4_MS-FS/DIM_PNEO4_202111151358313_MS-FS_ORT_PWOI_000071864_1_1_F_1.XML",
"filename": "IMG_01_PNEO4_MS-FS/DIM_PNEO4_202111151358313_MS-FS_ORT_PWOI_000071864_1_1_F_1.XML",
"file:size": 129316
},
"overview-PAN": {
"type": "image/jpeg",
"roles": [
"overview"
],
"href": "https://...//000071864_1_1_STD_A/IMG_01_PNEO4_PAN/PREVIEW_PNEO4_202111151358313_PAN_ORT_PWOI_000071864_1_1_F_1.JPG",
"filename": "IMG_01_PNEO4_PAN/PREVIEW_PNEO4_202111151358313_PAN_ORT_PWOI_000071864_1_1_F_1.JPG",
"file:size": 300442
},
"overview-MS-FS": {
"type": "image/jpeg",
"roles": [
"overview"
],
"href": "https://.../000071864_1_1_STD_A/IMG_01_PNEO4_MS-FS/PREVIEW_PNEO4_202111151358313_MS-FS_ORT_PWOI_000071864_1_1_F_1.JPG",
"filename": "IMG_01_PNEO4_MS-FS/PREVIEW_PNEO4_202111151358313_MS-FS_ORT_PWOI_000071864_1_1_F_1.JPG",
"file:size": 250529
}
}
Product Calibration
For Pleiades NEO products calibration refer to the Optical Products Calibration (OPT-Calib) service and the calibration sheet available here.
-
Airbus Defence and Space, Pléiades Neo First-rate performance for trusted intelligence, available at: https://www.airbus.com ↩
-
Airbus Defence and Space, Pléiades Neo User Guide ↩
-
Laurent Coeurdevey, Pléiades Neo Image quality indicators and products, VH-RODA 2021 online workshop, 20-23 April 2021. ↩
-
Airbus Defence and Space, Pléiades Neo 3 Products Technical Note Revision 2, Date 29/10/2021 ↩