While our eyes only detect a fraction of all light available, satellite sensors can actually capture – and send back – much more information. This information is relayed back to us in a format quite different from the photographs we are used to. For each band, satellites capture the spectral reflectance of the area within a specific narrow band of the light spectrum. Data captured along specific bands of the spectrum is available through EXPLORE. The bands available vary based on the sensor which captured the data.
Skywatch Band Ordering
The SkyWatch Analytics File (.tif) orders the bands per the output type. For the All-Optical Bands output type, the bands available are ordered per the following, which are also available through the image's metadata.json file:
Satellite | Band Order |
coastal blue, blue, green I, green, yellow, red, vegetation-red-edge-1, near-infrared | |
blue, green, red, NIR | |
blue, green, red, near-infrared | |
red, green, blue, near-infrared | |
deep blue, blue, green, red, red-edge, near-infrared | |
red, green, blue, near-infrared, narrow-near-infrared, vegetation-red-edge-1, vegetation-red-edge-2, vegetation-red-edge-3, short-wave-infrared-1, short-wave-infrared-2, coastal-aerosol, water-vapor, cirrus |
Available Outputs:
True Colour
A true colour image with red, green and blue bands. The result will return a PNG true-colour image, as well as a GeoTIFF containing all bands.
All Optical Bands
A file that contains all bands captured by the sensor. This includes red, blue, green, near-infrared, as well as panchromatic, short-wave infrared, red edge, and other bands when available. The result will return a PNG true-colour image, as well as a GeoTIFF containing all bands in Skywatch Band Ordering, shown in the table above.
RGB + NIR
A true colour image that also contains the near-infrared band. The result will return a PNG true-colour image, as well as a GeoTIFF containing all bands.