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Full catalog/WV02_Pan_L2A
WV02_Pan_L2A·v1·dataset

High-resolution black-and-white satellite photos (WorldView-2)

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

What it measures. Very sharp black-and-white satellite photographs of land, with detail down to about half a meter (0.46 m). Panchromatic means a single grayscale brightness channel.

How it's made. Taken by the commercial WorldView-2 satellite's camera from 2009 onward; this version has been corrected and placed onto a map projection with terrain taken into account.

How & where you'd use it. Supports applications needing very high detail, like mapping and monitoring change. Access is restricted and requires approval under a 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 2
  • 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 2A 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. These level 2A data have been processed and undergone radiometric correction, sensor correction, projected to a plane using a map projection and datum, and has a coarse DEM applied. 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_l2a_access.py
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc")          # free Earthdata Login

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="WV02_Pan_L2A",
    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.