Launched in 1997, OrbView-2 collects color imagery of the Earth’s entire land and ocean surfaces on a daily basis. Under a program called SeaStar, commercial fishing vessels use maps that include imagery from OrbView-2 for detecting oceanographic conditions favorable for fishing. The satellite provides broad-area coverage in 2,800 km-wide swaths, and is also used in ongoing research studying the world's carbon balance and global warming, and environmental monitoring.

BENEFITS
Benefits of low resolution imagery from GeoEye's OrbView-2 satellite include daily image availability; imagery with a wide swath width of 2,800 km, providing broad area coverage; eight channels of data, providing comprehensive color information from the visible to the near-infrared spectrum; spatial resolution of 1.1 km; and accessibility via a direct downlink or over the web.

IMAGERY APPLICATIONS
Applications for OrbView-2 imagery include fishing, agriculture, naval operations, environmental monitoring, and scientific research.

For detailed information on scientific applications for OrbView-2, please see the SeaWiFS Project Web site developed by the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. (SeaWiFS is the name of the imaging instrument on the OrbView-2 spacecraft).

Basic Data-Sets
We are currently offering OrbView-2 basic data-sets. Each data-set comprises a coverage area of 1,500 x 2,800 km, has a 1.13 km spatial resolution at nadir, and includes imaging information from all eight channels of the OrbView-2 imaging instrument. The Basic Data-Sets are not map projected or geo-corrected although they include the necessary telemetry data to do so.

Basic OrbView-2 data-sets can be Level-1 or Level-2 data in HDF format, compatible with NASA's FREE SeaDAS image processing software, as well as most commercial image processing software as 'Generic HDF' format.

L1A: Reconstructed, unprocessed instrument data at full resolution, including radiometric and geometric calibration coefficients and georeferencing parameters (i.e., platform ephemeris) computed and appended, but not applied to the L0 data.

L1B: At-sensor Top-of-the-Atmosphere radiances derived by applying the sensor calibration to the Level 1A sensor counts at the same resolution and location as the Level 1A data.

L2: Atmospheric corrections are applied to derive geo-physical variables at the same resolution and location as the L1 data, for example normalized water-leaving radiances for each of the 8 bands.

Direct Downlink Licenses
For customers who wish to access large amounts of OrbView-2 data in real-time, we offer annual direct downlink licenses. The license enables commercial customers to directly receive OrbView-2 data with their own high-resolution picture transmission (HRPT) antenna. A single license provides daily OrbView-2 coverage over a circular region with an approximate radius of 2,200 km.

Ocean Monitoring Service
The Ocean Monitoring Service is designed to provide science quality imagery or model based data sets of geophysical parameters to technical or scientific users. these users may have their own applications or GIS (Geographic Information Systems) and need ocean data or imagery without having to carry out the actual image processing. The data or imagery can be purchased either as a subscription or on a per image basis starting with basic data sets (described above), or at varying levels of processing. For datasets or imagery derived from OrbView-2 any product available in the SeaDas processing software is available. For custom algorithm processing or interest in other data sources or image processing services for ocean conditions,  please contact us at seastar@geoeye.com.

One standard product from OV-2 which is often requested is Chlorophyll-a. Chlorophyll-a is the green pigment found in plants and marine phytoplankton, and is an indicator of total plant biomass. Phytoplankton biomass is an important indicator for understanding the coastal environment, biological oceanography, trophic balances, world carbon cycles and global change. Used as a circulation tracer, spatial patterns in Chlorophyll-a concentrations often show a more detailed definition of the dynamic oceanic surface structure than is observed from spatial patterns in Sea Surface Temperature (SST).

Many environmental monitoring programs require knowledge of Chlorophyll-a concentrations and changes in the magnitude and distribution of these concentrations. The Chlorophyll-a data set and image products are suitable to calculate geophysical values from OrbView-2 multispectral data.

The Chlorophyll-a product is a 1.13 km nominal resolution data set or image that has been derived using water leaving radiances to estimate Chlorophyll-a concentrations in aquatic phytoplankton. In the image product, the data are displayed as an algorithm-derived pseudo-color image that highlights the full range of concentrations (sample is displayed above). In the data set product, the Chlorophyll-a concentrations in mg/m³, latitude and longitude are provided in an HDF (Hierarchical Data Format) file. Algorithms to calculate the Chlorophyll-a concentrations from band radiances are based on bio-optical oceanographic research that has taken place both before and during the OrbView-2 mission. Chlorophyll-a concentrations in the standard products are derived from the OC-4v4 algorithm, following the SeaWiFS program reprocessing specifications. Alternative algorithms, if requested by the customer, may be available.

Please click here to request more information about our OrbView-2 products.