PROBA-V delivers first images
10 days after the successful launch of PROBA-V we can proudly announce that the PROBA-V satellite is in good shape and has captured the first images of planet earth.
The Vegetation camera on board has been activated earlier this week, after a successful technical control. The first image has been captured yesterday over the West coast of France.
PROBA-V, the Belgian micro-satellite which was launched successfully on May 6, 2013 from the ESA launch base in French Guiana (Kourou), will constantly monitor the status of the global vegetation.
40 minutes after launch PROBA-V already made contact with various ground control stations, including the mission control centre in Redu, Belgium. In the meantime, the Vegetation camera is activated and has successfully sent the first images to the receiving station. These images are unprocessed, i.e. not geometrically nor radiometrically corrected.
After acquisition of the first images, an intensive calibration campaign starts. First results of this campaign look very promising. Once PROBA-V is fully operational, all images will be processed, archived and distributed by VITO in Mol, Belgium.
The PROBA-V data policy is very open to encourage a wide use of PROBA-V data. This means that most of the data will be free accessible from a Web based portal, which is ready to be released as soon as the first validated products are available.
These fully processed images, which will have a resolution of 1/3 km and 1 km, are essential to study climate change and global change more generally.
The minimum life time of PROBA-V is 2,5 years, but will probably be extended to 5 years thanks to the successful launch and accurate orbit injection.
PROBA-V is entirely designed & manufactured by a full Belgian consortium under the authority of BELSPO, the Belgian Science Policy, and ESA, the European Space Agency. VITO is responsible for the image processing centre.
For more information about PROBA-V and the upcoming Probing Vegetation conference in Antwerp, please visit http://proba-v.vgt.vito.be (new window).
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