DigitalGlobe Reportedly Pushing the U.S. Government to Ease Limits on Satellite Imagery Resolution

September 3, 2013  - By
Image: GPS World

Breaking Defense is reporting that DigitalGlobe has requested that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) relax the 41-cm limit currently in place.

Walter Scott, DigitalGlobe’s founder and now executive VP and chief technical officer, tells Breaking Defense there is “significant demand” for quarter-meter resolution from the international market. And that’s why the company applied for a change to the resolution they can be licensed for from half a meter to a quarter meter.

NOAA is responsible for managing remote sensing satellite licenses in the U.S. View the Commercial Remote Sensing Regulatory Affairs website here.

Current NOAA license holders (per NOAA website)  are listed below:

This is posted in Featured Stories, GIS News, Imagery, Mobile Devices, Technology

About the Author: Eric Gakstatter

Eric Gakstatter has been involved in the GPS/GNSS industry for more than 20 years. For 10 years, he held several product management positions in the GPS/GNSS industry, managing the development of several medium- and high-precision GNSS products along with associated data-collection and post-processing software. Since 2000, he's been a power user of GPS/GNSS technology as well as consulted with capital management companies; federal, state and local government agencies; and private companies on the application and/or development of GPS technology. Since 2006, he's been a contributor to GPS World magazine, serving as editor of the monthly Survey Scene newsletter until 2015, and as editor of Geospatial Solutions monthly newsletter for GPS World's sister site Geospatial Solutions, which focuses on GIS and geospatial technologies.