BJ3A

The BJ3A constellation, launched from 2021, comprises five 50cm satellites collecting panchromatic and multispectral imagery.

BJ3A

Technical specifications

Provider 21AT
Resolution
Panchromatic: 50cm GSD
Multispectral: 2m GSD
Swath width 23.5km at nadir
Accuracy 1m with suitable ground control
Bands
panchromatic: 450-900 nm
blue: 450-520 nm
green: 520-590 nm
red: 630-690 nm
nearIR: 770-890 nm
Stereo available Yes
Coverage 2,000,000 km² per day
Altitude 500 km
Dynamic Range 11 bits
Orbit Type Sun-synchronous

What you can do with BJ3A

Detail at 50cm GSD

At 50cm GSD, vehicles are countable, and building outlines, road furniture and single trees stay distinct. The panchromatic band carries that geometry, and the 2m GSD multispectral bands are pansharpened against it, so colour products hold the same detail.

Standard index bands

Blue, green, red and near-infrared cover the everyday products: true colour, colour infrared, and the indices built from red and near-infrared (NDVI) or green and near-infrared (NDWI). Those index rasters carry the 2m GSD multispectral sampling, not the 50cm GSD panchromatic figure.

5 satellites collecting

5 satellites fly this specification, so there are more chances of a usable pass inside a tasking window and a deeper archive to search before anything is tasked. As stated by the supplier: 2,000,000 km² per day of collection capacity. A large area of interest competes for that capacity with everything else in the queue.

Stereo for elevation

Stereo pairs are collectable, so elevation comes out of the imagery itself instead of a global model: building heights, stockpile and pit surfaces, the shape of structures on the site you ordered.