SPOT Satellite Imagery Archive from UK National Remote Sensing Centre

NRSC SPOT Data is an archive of satellite imagery distributed by the UK National Remote Sensing Centre. The collection includes multispectral and panchromatic imagery with a 26-day repeat cycle, available from February 22, 1986. Data products are offered on various media including magnetic tape, CD-ROM, and photographic film.

Use Cases

• Land cover classification using the three multispectral bands (0.5-0.59, 0.61-0.68, 0.79-0.89 microns).
• High-resolution feature extraction and mapping using the 10-meter panchromatic mosaic data.
• Change detection over time leveraging the 26-day satellite revisit capability.
• Creating stereographic imagery and digital elevation models using SPOT's stereographic capability.
• Analyzing historical UK land use from the archive's concentration of UK scene acquisitions.

Strengths

• Imagery available from a specific start date: February 22, 1986.
• Provides 20-meter resolution in multispectral mode and 10-meter resolution in panchromatic mode.
• Offers a 26-day repeat cycle for temporal analysis.

Limitations

• Specific row count, geographic coverage beyond the UK, and total archive size are unknown.
• Data is stored on legacy physical media formats (e.g., 6250 bpi tape, CD-ROM) which may require specialized hardware for access.
• The description does not specify the update frequency or currentness of the archive.

Provenance

Source

UK National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC), the official distributor of SPOT data in the UK.

Collection Method

Acquired and archived from SPOT (Satellite Pour l'Observation de la Terre) satellite missions.

Time Range

From February 22, 1986 onward.

Geography

Concentrates on UK data, with a growing number of scenes from other countries.