SPOT (Satellite Probatoire d'Observation de la Terre) is the
French government sponsored civil Earth observation program,
with support from Belgium and Sweden. A single SPOT satellite
provides complete coverage of the Earth every 26 days. Image
products from SPOT are handled by a commercial entity,
SPOT-Image Corp.
Spacecraft:
3-Axis stabilized. Single 5-panel solar array, each panel is 2.6
x 1.9 m. Hydrazine propulsion system provides orbit maintenance.
Payload:
Two HRVIR (High Resolution Visible - Infrared) pushbrrom imaging
instruments are carried. HRVIR is derived from the HRV
instruments on SPOT 1-3. This system will provide 10 m
resolution in the panchromatic band and 20 m resolution in the
multispectral bands. HRVIR includes a new medium IR channel to
support vegetation analysis and harvest forecasting. The HRVIRs
are steerable to within 27 deg off-nadir. Each HRVIR has a swath
width of 60 km. The Vegetation Monitoring instrument has 1 km
resolution in the same bands as the HRVIR. PASTEL optical link
terminal supports laser crosslink experiments. DORIS (Doppler
Orbitography and Radiopositioning Integrated by Satellite)
precision orbit determination system.
Additional information available at
"http://samadhi.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/QuickLooks/spot4QL.html"
[Summary provided by NASA]
Group: Platform_Details
Entry_ID: SPOT-4
Group: Platform_Identification
Platform_Category: Earth Observation Satellites
Platform_Series_or_Entity: SPOT
Short_Name: SPOT-4
Long_Name: Systeme Probatoire Pour l'Observation de la Terre-4
End_Group
Group: Synonymous_Platform_Names
Short_Name: 25260
End_Group
Group: Platform_Associated_Instruments
Short_Name: DORIS
Short_Name: VEGETATION-1
Short_Name: POAM III
Short_Name: HRVIR
Short_Name: HRV
End_Group
Group: Orbit
Orbit_Altitude: 832 km
Orbit_Inclination: 98.8°
Equator_Crossing: 10:30 local solar time
Period: 100.9 minutes
Repeat_Cycle: 26 days
Perigee: 791.0 km
Apogee: 811.0 km
Orbit_Type: LEO > Low Earth Orbit > Polar Sun-Synchronous
End_Group
Creation_Date: 2008-08-20
Online_Resource http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/nmc/spacecraftDisplay.do?id=1998-017A Online_Resource http://www.astrium-geo.com/ Online_Resource http://earth.esa.int/object/index.cfm?fobjectid=4074 Sample_Image http://ceos.cnes.fr:8100/cdrom-98/ceos1/satellit/spotsys/spot4_gb/images/orbite/spot4044.gif Group: Platform_Logistics
Launch_Date: 1998-03-24
Launch_Site: Kourou, French Guiana
Design_Life: 4 Years
Primary_Sponsor: France/CNES
End_Group
End_Group (en)