SPOT4 (Take5) : what’s next ?
(Version Française)
Orbit Change
Tomorrow, January the 29th at night, the altitude of SPOT4 will be lowered by 2.5 km. This operation is not far from the regular manoeuvres of orbit control and should not be risky. During the night, the orbit parameters will be measured and checked by our colleagues of the Operations Sub Directorate at CNES (DCT/OP).
Programming first acquisitions
Image programming schedule will be uploaded on the satellite on the afternoon of January the 30th by our CNES DCT/OP colleagues. If everything works well, first images will be acquired on Wednesday, January 31st (Day 5 in the 5 days cycle). The images will be recorded on-board and downloaded on Toulouse receiving station on the2nd or 3rd of February, along with all the images collected in between.
Data Inventory
Astrium Geo (ex-Spot-Image) will upload the images in its internal catalogue (4th or 5th of February). We will be able to check them then.
Image production
First level 1A should be produced shortly afterwards by Astrium. For the MUSCATE Production Center Teams at CNES and CESBIO, it will be the start of the final integration of level 1C and level 2A processors. As Take 5 experiment was only decided on the 11th of December, the integration of the elementary processors (ortho-rectification, calibration, cloud detection, atmospheric correction), and their fine tuning will take a while.
