Mary-Louise Hoffman
A DigitalGlobe commercial Earth-observing satellite was sent into space Wednesday aboard an Atlas V rocket launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif.
WorldView-3 is built to capture images at a multispectral resolution of 0.31 meters and has multiple shortwave infrared bands that will work to spot objects in the presence of fog, smoke, dust and haze, DigitalGlobe said Wednesday.
Jeffrey Tarr, DigitalGlobe CEO, said the company’s goal is “to help our customers see through smoke, peer beneath the ocean’s surface and determine the mineral and moisture content of the earth below.”
Ball Aerospace & Technologies built the atmospheric monitoring device on the satellite, while Exelis produced the sensor, telescope and SWIR payloads.
According to DigitalGlobe, the Ball-made CAVIS instrument will work to correct image quality inconsistencies caused by atmospheric obscurants.
