Earth Imaging Satellite Spots Crowds From 423 Miles Above

At 11:19 am EST Tuesday, GeoEye-1, the world's highest resolution commercial Earth-imaging satellite, collected an image over the United States Capitol and the Inauguration of President Barack Obama. The image, taken from 423 miles in space, is the world's highest resolution, color satellite image of the Inaugural celebration.

The image, taken through high, whispy white clouds over Washington DC, shows the monuments along the National Mall and masses of people between the Capitol and the Lincoln Memorial. Among the many interesting features in the image are the clusters of people gathered around large jumbotron screens.

The image was taken by GeoEye's newest satellite, GeoEye-1, as it moved from north to south along the eastern seaboard of the United States traveling at 17,000 mph or about four miles per second.

GeoEye-1 is the world's highest resolution commercial Earth imaging satellite. It is able to discern objects on the ground as small as 0.41-meter or about 16 inches in size, which represents an object about the size of home plate on a baseball diamond. However, due to current U.S licensing restrictions the imagery is re-sampled to half-meter ground resolution.

The satellite is currently in its final stages of check-out and calibration. The 4,300-pound satellite was launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base on September 6, 2008.

GeoEye is making the imagery available at no cost. It is downloadable from the company's website, at the FMI link below.

FMI: www.geoeye.com