Pléiades
Mission and sensor parameters
The Pléiades twins, Pléiades-1A and Pléiades-1B, are very high-resolution satellites delivering 50 cm imagery products with a 20km swath. The product's location accuracy and excellent image quality make it an ideal source for data for any civil or military project.
Mission parameters
Table 1 provides a summary of the Pléiades mission.
| Parameter | Specifications |
|---|---|
| EO Mission | Pléiades |
| Mission Short name | PHR |
| Providing Agency | CNES, Airbus |
| Date of launch | 17/12/2011 (PHR-1A), 2/12/2012 (PHR-1B) |
| Temporal coverage | 2012 - 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 | 694 km |
| Orbit Period | 99.79 min |
| Inclination | 98.2° |
| Repeat Cycle | 26 days |
Table 1 - Pleiades mission parameters.
Sensor specifications
Table 2 reports Instrument technical specifications
| Parameter | Specifications |
|---|---|
| Imager Type | Korsch telescope, 65cm aperture diameter, focal length of 12.905 m, f/20, TMA optics |
| Imaging Mode | PAN and MS (VIS, NIR) |
| Resolution | Very High Resolution - O-VHR (0 - 1m) |
| Ground Sampling Distance (m) at nadir | 0.7 (PAN), 2 (MS) |
| Viewing Angle | Standard +/-30°; maximum +/-47° |
| Nominal Swath Width | 20 km at nadir |
| Dynamic range at acquisition | 12 bit per pixel |
Table 2 - Pleiades instrument technical specifications.
Wavelength, Center wavelength, Bandwidth (or FWHM), and common band name (CBN) for each spectral band of the Pleiades sensor are described in table 3.
| Spectral Band (ID) | Wavelength (nm) | CBN |
|---|---|---|
| Panchromatic (PAN) | 470–830 | pan |
| Blue (B) | 430-550 | blue |
| Green (G) | 500-620 | green |
| Red (R) | 590-710 | red |
| NIR (NIR) | 740-940 | nir |
Table 3 - Pleiades 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.
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 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
Acquisition spectral modes for Pleiades are PA (panchromatic), XS (multispectral), and PX (PA+XS). Table 5 provides the list of naming for the multiple Pleiades spectral modes.
| Spectral processing | Spectral Mode |
|---|---|
| P | Panchromatic 1 band |
| MS | Multispectral 4 bands VNIR (Red, Green, Blue, NIR) |
| PMS | Pan-sharpened 4 bands VNIR (Red, Green, Blue, 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) |
Table 5 - Pleiades spectral modes.
Product description
Standard products options
Pleiades product includes panchromatic and/or multispectral data, delivered under multiple processing 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 | Bundle: PAN 50cm + MS 2m (4 bands RGB+NIR) |
| Spectral band combination 3 | Pansharpened 50cm in natural colour (3 bands RGB) |
| Spectral band combination 3 | Pansharpened 50cm in false colour (3 bands GRNIR) |
| Spectral band combination 4 | Pansharpened 50cm (4 bands RGB+NIR) |
| Spectral band combination 5 | Panchromatic 50cm (1 band) |
| Spectral band combination 6 | Multispectral 2m (4 bands RGB+NIR) |
Table 6 - Pleiades standard product options.
Imagery and metadata formats
Pléiades 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.
Ingested format
Information extracted from product annotation included in the STAC item of a Pleiades ORTHO PMS pansharpened 4-band multispectral Dataset are listed below.
Properties
STAC item content about properties for a Pléiades ORTHO PMS pansharpened 4-band multispectral Dataset is the following:
"properties": {
"datetime": "2023-02-09T08:34:45.8Z",
"created": "2023-02-10T17:35:07.365398Z",
"updated": "2023-08-22T14:48:54.4700579Z",
"platform": "pleiades-1a",
"constellation": "pleiades",
"mission": "pleiades-1a",
"instruments": [
"phr-1a"
],
"sensor_type": "optical",
"gsd": 0.7850710546838898,
"title": "PLEIADES-1A PHR-1A RASTER_ORTHO 2023-02-09 08:34:45",
"providers": [
{
"name": "Airbus",
"description": "The identical Pléiades 1A and Pléiades 1B satellites deliver 50cm imagery products with a 20km swath. The product's location accuracy and excellent image quality make it an ideal source for data for any civil or military project.",
"roles": [
"producer",
"processor",
"licensor"
],
"url": "https://www.intelligence-airbusds.com/imagery/constellation/pleiades/"
},
{
"name": "CNES",
"roles": [
"licensor"
]
}
],
"license": "proprietary",
"disaster:call_ids": [
919
],
"disaster:resolution_class": "VHR",
"cpe:cos2_id": "919-CNES-PLEIADES_1A-urn_ogc_def_EOP_PHR_1A___CHARTER_ID919_AOI33_SO23004598-2-01_DS_PHR1A_202302090834458_FR1_PX_E036N37_1007_01845"
}
Satellite
STAC item content about Satellite for a Pléiades ORTHO PMS pansharpened 4-band multispectral Dataset is the following:
"properties": {
"sat:platform_international_designator": "2011-076F"
}
View
STAC item content about View for a Pléiades ORTHO PMS pansharpened 4-band multispectral Dataset is the following:
"properties": {
"view:azimuth": 179.9643226510015,
"view:sun_azimuth": 158.1796946317538,
"view:sun_elevation": 35.43873525852502,
"view:incidence_angle": 23.13997196822551
}
Processing
STAC item content about Processing for a Pléiades ORTHO PMS pansharpened 4-band multispectral Dataset is the following:
"properties": {
"processing:level": "ORTHO/BASIC",
"processing:software": {
"DRS-MM V2.9": "V2.9"
}
}
Projection
STAC item content about Projection for a Pléiades ORTHO PMS pansharpened 4-band multispectral Dataset is the following:
"properties": {
"proj:epsg": 32636,
"proj:shape": [
17484,
39812
]
}
Geometry
STAC item content about Geometry for a Pléiades ORTHO PMS pansharpened 4-band multispectral Dataset is the following:
"geometry": {
"type": "Polygon",
"coordinates": [
[
[
36.7471972955117,
37.3516256487555
],
[
36.73832475241417,
37.17258059314305
],
[
36.83657558270478,
37.16943574155049
],
[
36.84567993177981,
37.34846046535505
],
[
36.7471972955117,
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]
]
]
},
"bbox": [
36.73832475241417,
37.16943574155049,
36.84567993177981,
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]
Assets
STAC item content about assets (annotation, quicklooks and spectral bands files harvested from the source product) and EO bands for a Pléiades ORTHO PMS pansharpened 4-band multispectral Dataset is the following:
"assets": {
"blue": {
"type": "image/tiff; application=geotiff; profile=cloud-optimized",
"roles": [
"data",
"reflectance",
"visual"
],
"href": "https://.../DS_PHR1A_202302090834089_FR1_PX_E036N37_1007_01591-calibrated/blue.tif",
"eo:bands": [
{
"name": "blue",
"description": "Raw radiometric count (DN) to TOA Radiance (L). Formulae L=DN/GAIN+BIAS",
"common_name": "blue",
"solar_illumination": 1915
}
],
"raster:bands": [
{
"spatial_resolution": 0.5,
"statistics": {
"minimum": 0,
"maximum": 10000,
"mean": 1099.1586831026,
"stddev": 890.26671808737,
"valid_percent": 100
},
"file:size": 796455776
},
"green": {
"type": "image/tiff; application=geotiff; profile=cloud-optimized",
"roles": [
"data",
"reflectance",
"visual"
],
"href": "https://.../DS_PHR1A_202302090834089_FR1_PX_E036N37_1007_01591-calibrated/green.tif",
"eo:bands": [
{
"name": "green",
"description": "Raw radiometric count (DN) to TOA Radiance (L). Formulae L=DN/GAIN+BIAS",
"common_name": "green",
"solar_illumination": 1831
}
],
"raster:bands": [
{
"spatial_resolution": 0.5,
"statistics": {
"minimum": 0,
"maximum": 10000,
"mean": 972.10462845682,
"stddev": 851.7691225341,
"valid_percent": 100
},
"file:size": 775575364
},
"red": {
"type": "image/tiff; application=geotiff; profile=cloud-optimized",
"roles": [
"data",
"reflectance",
"visual"
],
"href": "https://.../DS_PHR1A_202302090834089_FR1_PX_E036N37_1007_01591-calibrated/red.tif",
"eo:bands": [
{
"name": "red",
"description": "Raw radiometric count (DN) to TOA Radiance (L). Formulae L=DN/GAIN+BIAS",
"common_name": "red",
"solar_illumination": 1594
}
],
"raster:bands": [
{
"spatial_resolution": 0.5,
"statistics": {
"minimum": 0,
"maximum": 10000,
"mean": 845.9111852015,
"stddev": 838.77620859596,
"valid_percent": 100
},
"file:size": 760806521
},
"nir": {
"type": "image/tiff; application=geotiff; profile=cloud-optimized",
"roles": [
"data",
"reflectance",
"visual"
],
"href": "https://.../DS_PHR1A_202302090834089_FR1_PX_E036N37_1007_01591-calibrated/nir.tif",
"eo:bands": [
{
"name": "nir",
"description": "Raw radiometric count (DN) to TOA Radiance (L). Formulae L=DN/GAIN+BIAS",
"common_name": "nir",
"solar_illumination": 1060
}
],
"raster:bands": [
{
"spatial_resolution": 0.5,
"statistics": {
"minimum": 0,
"maximum": 10000,
"mean": 1716.1581221858,
"stddev": 1363.4867454117,
"valid_percent": 100
},
"file:size": 921686021
},
"overview-trc": {
"type": "image/tiff; application=geotiff; profile=cloud-optimized",
"roles": [
"composite",
"reflectance",
"visual"
],
"href": "https://.../DS_PHR1A_202302090834089_FR1_PX_E036N37_1007_01591-calibrated/overview-trc.tif",
"file:size": 1275368027
},
"overview-civ": {
"type": "image/tiff; application=geotiff; profile=cloud-optimized",
"roles": [
"composite",
"reflectance",
"visual"
],
"href": "https://.../DS_PHR1A_202302090834089_FR1_PX_E036N37_1007_01591-calibrated/overview-civ.tif",
"file:size": 1330749445
},
"overview-trc-low-res": {
"type": "image/tiff; application=geotiff; profile=cloud-optimized",
"roles": [
"composite",
"overview",
"reflectance"
],
"href": "https://.../DS_PHR1A_202302090834089_FR1_PX_E036N37_1007_01591-calibrated/overview-trc-low-res.tif",
"file:size": 1997776
}
}
Product Calibration
For Pleiades products calibration refer to the Optical Products Calibration (OPT-Calib) service and the calibration sheet available here.
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Airbus Defence and Space, Pléiades User Guide, available at https://www.intelligence-airbusds.com ↩