PR NEWS

RapidEye Successfully Completes Important Satellite Imaging Campaign in Afghanistan

RapidEye, the only geospatial solutions provider to own and operate a constellation of five identical Earth Observation satellites, announced today that it has completed a baseline image campaign covering the Helmand river basin in Afghanistan. The project was requested with an imaging window from November 3rd to December 4th, 2009 with the majority of the collection taking place during a 10 day from November 18th to 28th.

Covering over 250,000 square kilometers, the Helmand river basin is the largest in Afghanistan, accounting for almost half of the country’s territory. It is the world’s largest opium production region. The project was initiated to obtain baseline imagery maps and ground cover information prior to the beginning of the 2010 growing season.

Since the river basin contains the largest production of opium in Afghanistan, it is essential to understand growth patterns and estimate yields in this area as part of the United Nations (UN), US and other efforts to suppress production. The wholesale value of the opium trade in Afghanistan was estimated at about $3 billion USD in 2008. With its red-edge band and broad area coverage the RapidEye satellite constellation is ideally suited for collecting and characterizing agricultural fields and can contribute greatly to these efforts. Timeliness and accuracy of information is key when providing frequent agricultural monitoring. The RapidEye constellation of five satellites has the unrivaled ability to image individual fields, counties, states or countries on a frequent revisit cycle. The Helmand river basin project reinforced these capabilities, as the area around and including Lahkar Gah, the capital city of Helmand, was collected seven times in 23 days. RapidEye’s satellites can collect up to 4 million square kilometers of Earth Observation imagery every day and revisit any region on Earth on a near-daily basis thus assuring quick and reliable coverage of large areas at high resolution.

The imagery covering the Helmand river basin is now available for purchase to clients and partners worldwide.

Important Imaging Campaign In Afghanistan Helmand Watershed Repetitively Imaged Over 10 Days Successfully Completed By RapidEye

RapidEye informed that it has completed a baseline image campaign covering the Helmand river basin in Afghanistan. The project was requested with an imaging window from November 3rd to December 4th, 2009 with the majority of the collection taking place during a 10 day from November 18th to 28th.

Covering over 250,000 square kilometers, the Helmand river basin is the largest in Afghanistan, accounting for almost half of the country’s territory. It is the world’s largest opium production region. The project was initiated to obtain baseline imagery maps and ground cover information prior to the beginning of the 2010 growing season.

Since the river basin contains the largest production of opium in Afghanistan, it is essential to understand growth patterns and estimate yields in this area as part of the United Nations, US and other efforts to suppress production. The wholesale value of the opium trade in Afghanistan was estimated at about $3 billion USD in 2008. With its red-edge band and broad area coverage the RapidEye satellite constellation is ideally suited for collecting and characterizing agricultural fields and can contribute greatly to these efforts.

Timeliness and accuracy of information is key when delivering frequent agricultural monitoring. The RapidEye constellation of five satellites has the unrivaled ability to image individual fields, counties, states or countries on a frequent revisit cycle. The Helmand river basin project reinforced these capabilities, as the area around and including Lahkar Gah, the capital city of Helmand, was collected seven times in 23 days. RapidEye’s satellites can collect up to 4 million square kilometers of Earth Observation imagery every day and revisit any region on Earth on a near-daily basis thus assuring quick and reliable coverage of large areas at high resolution.

The imagery covering the Helmand river basin is now available for purchase to clients and partners worldwide. What is more, many more million kilometers of Earth Observation data can be accessed through the RapidEye Library, which contains their entire catalog of products including their most recently collected satellite imagery, or through the RapidEye Geodata Kiosk by visiting.

For more information please visit www.rapideye.de

RapidEye’s Online Satellite Data Store Now Open

RapidEye, the only geospatial solutions provider to own and operate a constellation of five identical Earth Observation satellites, released the German version of their online shop for satellite imagery today – “The RapidEye Geodata Kiosk”.

The RapidEye Geodata Kiosk is an online shop for satellite imagery with ready-to-use data available immediately after purchase. After a secure credit card payment is made, the data is ready to be picked up immediately via secure download.

All data available in the Geodata Kiosk are RapidEye Ortho Products (level 3A); orthorectified, five meter pixel sized imagery from the RapidEye satellite constellation, ready to integrate into any GIS system. In addition to the data for Germany this release also includes the data for 16 free demonstration products for potential customers to test.

“With the RapidEye Geodata Kiosk we have the ability to accommodate satellite imagery requests from almost anybody; from the GIS professional who might want to use the data as background imagery, to value adders, who can derive expert analyses from it, to the university student, as well as to my neighbor who might be looking for an image of Berlin for his home. By using the Internet to distribute our data we will be able to service large and small orders of our satellite imagery easily, quickly and automatically,” commented Wolfgang G. Biedermann, RapidEye’s CEO. “With the release of our German version we are getting our ‘feet wet’, and we ask that everyone try it out so that we can work out any initial problems before we make a big splash with the roll-out of our international version in 2010.”

RapidEye plans to expand the Geodata Kiosk to include data products from around the world, with a dedication to providing continually fresh imagery and making data from almost every country on Earth available to anyone, anywhere at anytime.

“The big benefits for our customers are that they can choose and buy only the area they really need, as no minimum sized area is required and purchases can be made with as little as 50 Euro. Customers instantly get what they order and can choose between different delivery formats, including GeoTIFF and NITF. Re-projection on-the-fly between UTM and geographic coordinate systems is also an option that will appeal to our more knowledgeable customers,” comments Michael W. Prechtel, Head of Marketing and Sales for RapidEye.

The Geodata Kiosk can be accessed through the direct URL www.geodatakiosk.com, or by visiting RapidEye’s website. This initial version of the Geodata Kiosk may have minor system difficulties, but will not affect the quality of its data. RapidEye would appreciate if any issues with the system will be reported either through the feedback function in the Geodata Kiosk or via a direct email to kioskfeedback@rapideye.de.