SPOT- 5 North American Data Buy

The USGS has contracted with SPOT Image Corporation to acquire and provide Satellite Pour l'Observation de la Terre (SPOT) satellite data for calendar years 2010 and 2011. Under the North America Data Buy agreement, SPOT Image will provide moderate-resolution data from their SPOT 4 and 5 satellites over the conterminous United States and parts of Canada and Mexico through the receiving capabilities at the USGS EROS Center. The French space agency, Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales (CNES), owns and operates the SPOT satellite system. SPOT Image Corporation is a subsidiary of the SPOT Image group, which provides worldwide distribution of their imagery.
Under the licensing arrangements of the North America Data Buy contract, access is limited to U.S. Federal civil Government agency users and U.S. State and local government users. The 2011 contract expands usage to include U.S. tribal governments. Qualified users must be logged in to EarthExplorer to gain access to this dataset. An explanation of data restrictions and limitations is displayed when accessing these collections and must be agreed upon before gaining access to these data.

The USGS SPOT 4 and 5 datasets provide North American coverage between 53 degrees north latitude and 23.5 degrees north latitude in calendar year 2010. The coverage for 2011 extends from 55 degrees north latitude to 23.5 degrees north latitude.

SPOT satellites carry imaging instruments that operate with panchromatic and multispectral sensors. The SPOT 4 payload includes two High Resolution Visible and Infrared (HRVIR) sensors, and SPOT 5 utilizes two High Resolution Geometric (HRG) instruments. Each sensor has a swath of 60 km and has an oblique viewing capability of 27 deg on each side of vertical. The sensors can operate independently to observe separate targets or in tandem to cover a larger swath in a single pass. Each scene in this collection is approximately 60 km by 60 km and is referenced to World Geodetic System 84 (WGS 84