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Editor’s note: Maxar’s product managers have been sharing how more high-resolution imagery from the company’s new WorldView Legion satellites will improve their products. Other blog posts in this series can be found here.

Maxar Intelligence has long been a leader in accuracy and resolution with our WorldView and GeoEye satellites. Now with the addition of the WorldView Legion satellites to the Maxar constellation, we’re set to revolutionize how we view and understand our world, thanks to many more high-quality images of Earth. The added capacity will enable targeted collections over high-demand regions where historically collections have been limited, assuring that Maxar can produce the most accurate and current 3D models of regions of the world that are of highest priority to Maxar's customers.

Maxar launched four WorldView Legion satellites into mid-inclination orbits, which will enable them to collect images at different times of day, and from different angles than the sun-synchronous Maxar satellites. While Maxar’s sun-synchronous satellites collect images of the Earth’s surface under their orbital path just before noon local time, the mid-inclination WorldView Legion satellites will be able to image in the early morning, midday and late afternoon, giving multiple time windows to avoid cloud cover and marine layer fog that can obscure the view between the satellite and Earth. The result is more current imagery content that Maxar can use to power our Precision3D multiview 3D reconstruction algorithms.

Maxar's Precision3D products are the industry-leading, high-resolution, global 3D and elevation datasets, providing an unprecedented level of accuracy and detail. Currently, Maxar has built more than 70% of Earth's landmass in photorealistic 3D with 50 cm resolution and sub-3 m vertical and horizontal positional accuracy. While others can provide 3D data over small areas, only Maxar offers this level of precision at country scale.

Increasing Precision3D production
Accessing all of these new cloud-free images from WorldView Legion is critically important to the Precison3D product line as the process is dependent on numerous images over the same location. Precision3D utilizes a patented, advanced, multiview photogrammetric process to produce 3D surface and elevation datasets. Multiview photogrammetry is a remote sensing technique that requires a deep stack of about 15 to 25 images over the same location. These images are gathered from multiple collection angles and correlated together through advanced machine learning algorithms to create the most accurate and resolute 3D and elevation products possible from satellite collections. Traditional stereo elevation products contain problematic, low-fidelity occlusion areas, and the accuracy suffers significantly without ground control points, which are unreliable or non-existent in many parts of the world. Multiview allows near occlusion-free production, meaning that accurately measured height values are provided for nearly every 50 cm pixel. Additionally, Maxar’s patented process positionally corrects all the images, eliminating pointing error that may exist in each individual image. WorldView Legion contributes to fresh stacks of clear imagery to produce Precision3D.

This video shows Precision3D 3D Surface Model generated from WorldView Legion imagery collected during a three-month time period. It represents the most accurate terrain visualization of Earth from space for simulation, training, navigation and network planning.

Maxar’s Precision3D data, fueled by WorldView Legion imagery, will provide an unprecedented level of detail and accuracy around the globe for industries such as telecommunications, visualization and simulation, autonomous navigation, defense and intelligence, urban planning, infrastructure development, natural resource management, and disaster response and recovery efforts.

Accessing Precision3D

Maxar Geospatial Platform (MGP) Pro enables unprecedented on-demand access to Maxar's extensive library of high-resolution imagery and geospatial data, including Precision3D, via a cloud-based platform and APIs. MGP Pro provides users with the tools and resources they need to analyze, visualize and interpret the data in real-time, enabling more efficient and effective decision-making.

Revolutionizing our understanding of Earth

Maxar's new WorldView Legion satellites, combined with Precision3D and MGP Pro, will revolutionize the way we view and understand our world. By providing more high-quality images at new look angles and times of day, WorldView Legion will enable a current and global 50 cm resolution 3D and elevation dataset that will have a significant impact on numerous industries that will have unprecedented on-demand access to the world in 3D via MGP Pro.