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Full catalog/WV02_Pan_L1B
WV02_Pan_L1B·v1·dataset

Sharp black-and-white satellite photos (WorldView-2)

WorldView-2 Level 1B Panchromatic Satellite Imagery
land NASA CSDA Level 1B active NITF21NCDRDGeoTIFF
In plain English

What it measures. Very sharp black-and-white (panchromatic) satellite photographs of the land surface, with detail down to about half a meter — fine enough to make out individual buildings and roads.

How it's made. Captured by the commercial WorldView-2 satellite and provided in a raw, sensor-corrected form that isn't yet map-projected, acquired through NASA's commercial data program.

How & where you'd use it. Supports any work needing high-detail imagery, such as mapping and land monitoring; access is restricted and requires approval under a government license.

What's measured

SPECTRAL/ENGINEERING › VISIBLE WAVELENGTHS › VISIBLE IMAGERYSPECTRAL/ENGINEERING › INFRARED WAVELENGTHS › INFRARED IMAGERYSPECTRAL/ENGINEERING › VISIBLE WAVELENGTHS › VISIBLE RADIANCESPECTRAL/ENGINEERING › INFRARED WAVELENGTHS › INFRARED RADIANCELAND SURFACE › SURFACE RADIATIVE PROPERTIES › REFLECTANCE

Coverage & cadence

  • Time span2009-10-08 → ongoing
  • Measured byWORLDVIEW-2 (WV110)
  • Processing levelLevel 1B
  • Spatial extent-180, -90, 180, 90
  • FormatsNITF21NCDRD, GeoTIFF
  • StatusACTIVE

What you can do with it

  • Track deforestation, fire scars and land-cover change
  • Monitor crop and vegetation health (NDVI/EVI)
  • Map how built-up vs. green an area is over time
Official description

The WorldView-2 Level 1B Panchromatic Imagery collection contains satellite imagery acquired from Vantor, Inc. (formerly known as Maxar Technologies) by the Commercial Satellite Data Acquisition (CSDA) Program. Imagery is collected by the WorldView-2 satellite using the WorldView-110 camera across the global land surface from October 2009 to the present. This data product includes panchromatic imagery with a spatial resolution of 0.46m and a temporal resolution of approximately 1.1 days. The data are provided in National Imagery Transmission Format (NITF) and GeoTIFF formats. This level 1B data is sensor corrected and is an un-projected (raw) product. The data potentially serve a wide variety of applications that require high resolution imagery. Data access is restricted based on a National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) license, and investigators must be approved by the CSDA Program.

Get the data

wv02_pan_l1b_access.py
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc")          # free Earthdata Login

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="WV02_Pan_L1B",
    version="1",
    bounding_box=(-122.5, 37.2, -121.8, 37.9),  # your area (W,S,E,N)
    temporal=("2024-01-01", "2024-12-31"),       # your dates
)
files = earthaccess.open(results)   # stream straight from CSDA
Browsing CMR needs no login. Downloading or streaming bytes needs a free Earthdata Login + the earthaccess package.