Difficult-to-image Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Area was completely covered by cloud-free images from SPOT 5 (spatial resolution of 2.5 m, color) and SPOT 6 satellites (1.5 m, color) within the summer 2013 period. High imagery rate of this area deserves special attention (see fig. 1), where the cyclonic type of weather prevails, which impedes an operational delivery of cloudless satellite imagery data.
Over the first 17 days of imaging (1 to 17 June) there were obtained cloud-free satellite data covering 328 thousand square kilometers, which is 62 % of the entire territory of Khanty-Mansi Area. Two months later (by July 29) , 98 % of the autonomous area were covered by satellite images and by August 25 – before the end of the imaging season – the high rate of space data reception allowed generating 100% coverage.
Satellite imagery of the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Area is complicated by the prevailing cyclonic type of weather (heavy clouds in the summer months) and a short snow-free period: northern districts get rid of a stable snow cover only by the end of May, but there are cases when, and there is still snow in June. Snow cover in this region begins to form in October. As a result, the imaging season duration in KhMAO is only 3-4 months , from June to September. Therefore, it looks quite problematic to get cloud-free highly detailed satellite images of the entire territory of the Khanty-Mansi Area of 530,600 square kilometers just within one imaging season.
However, the specialists of ScanEx RDC, thanks to good survey planning and direct data reception from SPOT- 5 and SPOT 6 satellites to the proprietary UniScanTM network of ground stations were able to respond to this challenge before the end of the active imaging season.
High performance of the satellite systems also contributed to the solution of this task primarily due to a wide imaging swath (60 km). Furthermore, a short slew time of the SPOT 6 craft facilitates the use of the satellite resources to the maximum within one pass, which in turn also leads to a high performance equal to 3 million square kilometers per day.
ScanEx specialists by the users’ request can provide satellite images and prepare mosaics based on the data of different satellite programs covering any area of interest of Russia and the CIS countries, regardless of the weather and climate of the region.
