SPOT 6 - Earth Online

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About SPOT 6

SPOT 6

SPOT 6 (Satellite pour l'Observation de la Terre) is a commercial Earth-imaging satellite owned and operated by Airbus Defence and Space. It was launched on 9 September 2012 and remains operational.

SPOT 6 and SPOT 7 identical satellites, form a constellation designed to provide continuity of high-resolution, wide-swath SPOT data up to 2023. Both satellites have drawn on technological and operational innovations conceived for the Pléiades constellation. It represents a source of broad-swath imagery in complement to the Pléiades Very High Resolution data. Users have access to 1.5-m colour imagery, to high quality ortho-images and to large area mosaics.

*SPOT 6 Mission Parameters*
Orbit Height	694 km
Orbit Type	Sun-synchronous
Orbit Inclination	98.2°
Local Equator Crossing Time	10:00 AM at descending node
Orbit Duration	98.79 minutes
Repeat Cycle	26 days
Revisit Capability	1 day with SPOT 6 and SPOT 7 operating simultaneously Between 1 and 3 days with only one satellite

SPOT 6 is part of ESA's Third Party Missions Programme, in which ESA has an agreement with Airbus Defence and Space to distribute data products from the mission.

SPOT 6 Objectives

SPOT 6, like all the SPOT missions, is aimed at supplying high-resolution, wide-area optical imagery. This was designed to improve the knowledge and management of Earth's resources, detecting and forecasting phenomena involving climatology and oceanography, and monitoring human activities and natural phenomena.

SPOT 6 Instruments

New Astrosat Optical Modular Instrument (NAOMI)

Two identical NAOMI instruments on board SPOT 6 provide data up to 1.5 m spatial resolution panchromatic and multispectral. They are able to operate both in two modes, either simultaneously or individually. In simultaneous mode the swath is 120 km² and individual mode the swath is 60 km².

*Instrument Details*
Type	High-resolution optical pushbroom imager
Ground Sample Distance	Panchromatic: 1.5 m at nadir Multispectral: 6 m at nadir
Swath Width	60 km
Field of Regard	±30° (spacecraft tilting capability about nadir for event monitoring)
Bands	PAN	0.45-0.75 µm
	Blue	0.45-0.52 µm
	Green	0.53-060 µm
	Red	0.62-0.69 µm
	NIR (Near Infrared)	0.76-0.89 µm

SPOT 6 Data

DATA COLLECTIONS

ESA is offering access to the full SPOT 6 archive for scientific research and application development. Access is only available to submitted proposals that are accepted.

As many as possible of the high-quality and innovative proposals submitted will be supported within the quota limit available, therefore, only a limited amount of products can be made available to each project.

SPOT 6 and 7 full archive and tasking

ESA offers registered users access through the Online Dissemination server to the SPOT 6 and 7 ESA archive. The dataset consists of coverage that ESA has collected during this mission and the dataset continues to grow as new products are added.

SPOT-6 and 7 ESA archive

SPOT 6 INSTRUMENTS

SPOT 6 DATA