Historical Satellite Archive · Fuzhou 2004

Fuzhou 2004 1m Resolution OrbView Satellite Historical Imagery Map

Published on:
Keywords Fuzhou satellite imagery 1m resolution OrbView
Satellite
OrbView OrbView-3
Acquired
2004
Coverage
Fuzhou City, Fujian Province, China
Intended use
Historical imagery archive
City Memory · Urban Archive

Fuzhou, also known as Rongcheng, is a coastal city in southeastern China along the lower Minjiang River and near the East China Sea, where mountains, rivers and the sea meet. In 2004, Fuzhou’s urban framework was expanding rapidly: both banks of the Minjiang River, historic streets and nearby mountains and waterways formed its distinctive urban fabric. With 1-meter OrbView historical satellite imagery, viewers can clearly observe the road network, building distribution, farmland and forests, and river courses of that year. These images provide direct evidence for urban-change research, historic preservation, territorial spatial planning and geographic-information comparison.

Unlike ordinary maps, historical satellite imagery is like a time capsule: it freezes ground conditions from more than twenty years ago, allowing planners, researchers and general readers to rediscover Fuzhou at both broad and detailed levels. The following images are 1-meter historical satellite views of Fuzhou acquired by the U.S. OrbView satellite in 2004.

OrbView-3 was a commercial high-resolution optical remote-sensing satellite launched by ORBIMAGE of the United States in 2003, and it became an important commercial remote-sensing mission of the early 21st century. It carried panchromatic and multispectral sensors, providing 1-meter panchromatic imagery and 4-meter multispectral imagery with an approximately 8-km swath. Its data were widely used for urban planning, land and natural-resource surveys, agricultural and forestry monitoring, disaster assessment, mapping and cartography.

Although the satellite is no longer operational, its archived imagery remains an important historical reference, especially for comparing urban expansion, land-use change and major projects before and after construction. For a fast-growing coastal city such as Fuzhou, the 2004 imagery preserves a valuable and direct visual record of urban spatial evolution.

1 mPanchromatic image resolution
2003Satellite launch year
8 kmSingle-pass imaging swath
About 3 daysNominal revisit cycle
Panchromatic resolution 1 meterKEY PARAMETER
Launch date June 26, 2003KEY PARAMETER
Satellite OrbView-3 (OrbView series)
Multispectral resolution 4 meters
Orbital altitude About 470 km
Orbit type Sun-synchronous orbit
Imaging swath About 8 km
Revisit period About 3 days
Spectral bands Panchromatic, blue, green, red and near-infrared
Typical applications Urban planning, agriculture and forestry, disaster assessment, base mapping and historical-image comparison
02 / Object Recognition

Satellite Image Object Recognition

From urban fabric to road details, choose an object category and open its topic to see typical recognition targets in satellite imagery.