IKONOS, derived from the Greek word for image, is the world’s first commercial satellite able to collect black-and-white (panchromatic) images with 82-centimeter resolution and multispectral imagery with 4-meter resolution. Imagery from both sensors can be merged to create 1-meter color imagery (pan-sharpened). The more than 300 million square kilometers of imagery that IKONOS has collected over every continent is being used for national security, military mapping, air and marine transportation, and by regional and local governments.

Ikonos has a repetitive, circular, sun-synchronous, near-polar orbit guaranteeing full coverage of the earth. The sensor can be inclined to acquire imagery up to 700 km either side of the track (maximum incidence angle 26º), thus giving the satellite the capacity to revisit, albeit with different sensor angles and resolution, any area on the earth on average every 1.5 days (data resolution up to 2 metres). An average 2.9 day revisit can be achieved for 1 metre resolution data in an area that covers up to 300 kms either side of the track (angle +/- 10°).

Ikonos has an on-board recorder, and so can acquire data over almost any area of the Earth’s surface. This recorder can hold 64Gbit of data (approximately 26 Full images of both Pan and MS data), and the downlink of data is made at the stations of Fairbanks and Tromsoe, in optimal position thanks to their high latitude.