There’s a new Earth-orbiting Satellite in town, and its job is to take incredibly high-resolution and high-detail photographs of the world underneath it.
You’re probably thinking to yourself that we already have plenty of satellites that do this for the many mapping services of the world, such as Google Maps, and you’d be right, but the goal of this satellite, dubbed WorldView 4, is to provide the clearest photographs of Earth ever taken from the heavens above.
Just this month, WorldView 4 snapped an incredible photograph of the Yoyogi National Gymnasium in Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan from approximately 383 miles above the ground:
Image Credit: DigitalGlobe 2016
You can see just how incredibly detailed the photograph is, and you can make out even some of the smallest objects on the ground. Yes, folks, that was taken via satellite, not from a helicopter or airplane.
The camera onboard the WorldView 4 satellite is called the SpaceView 110 and has a resolution of approximately 1 foot per pixel.
According to the WorldView 4 website, the satellite is going to be collecting 680,000 square kilometers of imagery data to its expanding library every single day.
"WorldView-4 features industry-leading resolution and location accuracy, which together unlock valuable information that enables critical decisions to be made with confidence. As part of the world’s most capable commercial imaging satellite constellation, WorldView-4 enhances global security and transparency, powers location-enabled applications and mapping services, supports the rapid response to global humanitarian crises, and much more," the company said in a statement.
That’s not to say that your internet mapping images are about to get this clear any time soon, but it shows that the imaging technology is certainly getting there.
Source: WorldView 4, Mashable
