Best Polar Orbit

WorldView-3 is a high-resolution commercial Earth observation satellite operated by Maxar and launched in 2014. It provides panchromatic imagery at 0.31-meter resolution, making it the highest-resolution commercial imaging satellite in orbit. The satellite is equipped with multispectral and shortwav...

IKONOS-2 was a commercial Earth observation satellite launched in 1999 by Space Imaging (later GeoEye). It holds the distinction of being the first satellite to deliver publicly available, high-resolution sub-meter imagery to civilian and commercial customers. Operating in a sun-synchronous orbit, i...

IKONOS was a pioneering commercial Earth observation satellite launched in 1999 by Space Imaging (later GeoEye). As the first privately owned satellite to provide sub-meter resolution imagery to the public, it fundamentally transformed the commercial geospatial industry. Operating in a sun-synchrono...

Sentinel-2B is an Earth observation satellite operated by the European Space Agency (ESA) as part of the Copernicus Programme. Launched in 2017, it flies in a sun-synchronous orbit phased 180 degrees opposite its twin, Sentinel-2A. Equipped with a multispectral imager, the satellite captures high-re...

Seasat was a NASA ocean-observing satellite launched in 1978, the first spacecraft dedicated to remote sensing of Earth's oceans, pioneering synthetic aperture radar imaging before failing after 105 days.

CryoSat-2 is an Earth observation satellite developed by the European Space Agency (ESA) and launched in 2010. Its primary mission is to measure the thickness of sea ice and the elevation of polar ice sheets to understand how climate change affects Earth's cryosphere. It achieves this using the SAR/...

Nimbus-7 was an American meteorological research satellite launched by NASA in 1978 into a sun-synchronous orbit. As the final satellite in the highly successful Nimbus program, it carried a suite of remote sensing instruments to study Earth's atmosphere, oceans, and climate. Notably, it hosted the...

ALOS-2 (Advanced Land Observing Satellite-2) is a Japanese Earth observation satellite operated by JAXA and launched in 2014. Equipped with an L-band synthetic aperture radar (SAR) sensor, it can observe the Earth's surface day and night, even in adverse weather conditions. The spacecraft provides h...

NOAA-20 is a polar-orbiting environmental monitoring satellite operated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Launched in 2017, it serves as the inaugural spacecraft of the Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS) program. The satellite carries a suite of instruments, including the Visi...

OrbView-2, also known as SeaStar, was a NASA-sponsored Earth observation satellite launched in 1997 to monitor the global biosphere. The spacecraft carried the Sea-viewing Wide Field-of-view Sensor (SeaWiFS), designed to measure ocean color and biological productivity. By tracking chlorophyll concen...

OSTM/Jason-2 was a joint international oceanography mission launched in 2008 by NASA, CNES, NOAA, and EUMETSAT. The spacecraft was equipped with a Poseidon-3 radar altimeter to precisely measure global sea surface height from a polar orbit. This data allowed scientists to track ocean circulation pat...

TerraSAR-X is an Earth observation satellite launched in 2007 through a public-private partnership between the German Aerospace Center (DLR) and Airbus Defence and Space. Operating from a polar orbit, the spacecraft utilizes an active X-band synthetic aperture radar (SAR) antenna to capture high-res...

NOAA-21 is an environmental monitoring satellite launched in 2022 as the second spacecraft in the Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS) program. Operated by NOAA in collaboration with NASA, it orbits the Earth pole-to-pole to gather atmospheric, oceanic, and terrestrial data. It carries instruments li...

QuickBird was a commercial high-resolution Earth observation satellite operated by DigitalGlobe and launched in 2001. Circling the planet in a sun-synchronous orbit, the satellite captured panchromatic imagery at a resolution of 0.61 meters and multispectral imagery at 2.4 meters. These detailed ima...

The Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 (OCO-2) is a NASA satellite launched in 2014 to measure global atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations from a polar orbit. It features three high-resolution grating spectrometers that track the detailed molecular absorption of sunlight reflected by the Earth's sur...

Sentinel-2C is an Earth observation satellite developed by the European Space Agency for the Copernicus program, successfully launched in 2024. It joins the Sentinel-2 constellation to ensure the continuity of multispectral imaging operations previously managed by its predecessors. From a sun-synchr...

SPOT-1 was a French Earth observation satellite launched by the CNES in 1986, marking the inaugural mission of the commercial SPOT satellite program. Operating in a sun-synchronous polar orbit, it was equipped with two HRV (High Resolution Visible) imaging instruments capable of capturing 10-meter p...

Sentinel-1C is a European Space Agency Copernicus program satellite carrying a C-band synthetic aperture radar (SAR) instrument. Launched in December 2024, it joined the Sentinel-1 constellation in Sun-synchronous polar orbit to provide continuous, all-weather, day-and-night Earth imaging. Its data...

ALOS (Advanced Land Observing Satellite), also called Daichi, was a JAXA Earth observation satellite launched on an H-IIA rocket in January 2006 from Tanegashima, Japan. It carried three instruments: PRISM for panchromatic stereo mapping at 2.5-meter resolution, AVNIR-2 for multispectral imaging, an...

Metop-A was the first satellite in Europe's EUMETSAT Polar System, launched on October 19, 2006 aboard a Soyuz rocket from Baikonur into a Sun-synchronous polar orbit at approximately 817 km altitude. It carried instruments including the IASI infrared sounder, AMSU-A microwave sounder, MHS humidity...

COSMIC (Constellation Observing System for Meteorology, Ionosphere, and Climate), also designated FORMOSAT-3, was a joint U.S.–Taiwan mission consisting of six microsatellites launched together on a single Falcon I rocket in April 2006 into a 72-degree inclination orbit. Each satellite carried a GPS...

Radarsat-2 is a Canadian synthetic aperture radar satellite launched on December 14, 2007 aboard a Soyuz rocket from Baikonur into a Sun-synchronous dawn–dusk orbit at approximately 798 km altitude. Built by MDA (now Maxar) for the Canadian Space Agency, it carries a C-band SAR capable of multiple i...

Metop-B is the second satellite in the EUMETSAT Polar System, launched on September 17, 2012 aboard a Soyuz rocket from Baikonur into a Sun-synchronous polar orbit at approximately 817 km altitude. It carries the same suite of instruments as Metop-A, including the IASI infrared sounder, AMSU-A micro...

Landsat 4 was a joint NASA and U.S. Geological Survey Earth observation satellite launched on July 16, 1982 into a Sun-synchronous near-polar orbit at approximately 705 km altitude. It carried the Thematic Mapper sensor, which provided 30-meter resolution in six visible and infrared bands plus a 120...

Pleiades Neo 3 is an Earth observation satellite funded, built, and operated by Airbus, launched in April 2021. As the first satellite in the Pleiades Neo constellation, it provides very high-resolution commercial optical imagery from a sun-synchronous low Earth orbit. The spacecraft is equipped to...

WorldView-2 is a high-resolution commercial Earth observation satellite launched in 2009 and operated by DigitalGlobe, now known as Maxar Technologies. Operating in a sun-synchronous orbit, it was the first commercial satellite to provide eight-band multispectral imagery alongside 0.46-meter panchro...

Sentinel-3B is an Earth observation satellite operated by the European Space Agency as part of the Copernicus Programme, launched in April 2018. It flies in a sun-synchronous low Earth orbit, orbiting in tandem with Sentinel-3A to provide optimal global coverage. The satellite carries multiple instr...

Metop-C is a meteorological satellite launched in November 2018 from French Guiana, serving as the third and final component of the EUMETSAT Polar System. Operated by EUMETSAT and developed in collaboration with the European Space Agency, it circles the Earth in a sun-synchronous low Earth orbit. Th...

EO-1 (Earth Observing-1) was a NASA technology demonstration satellite launched in 2000, notable for first flying a hyperspectral Hyperion imager in orbit and later pioneering autonomous science operations.