EM 1110-2-2907
1 October 2003
Figure 3-3. Satellite Near
Polar Orbit, Courtesy of
the Natural Resources
Canada.
3-14 Planning Satellite Acquisitions. Corps satellite acquisition must be arranged
through the Topographic Engineering Center (TEC) Imagery Office (TIO). It is very easy
to transfer the cost of the imagery to TEC via the Corps Financial Management System
(CFMS). They will place the order, receive and duplicate the imagery for entry into the
National Imagery and Mapping Agency (NIMA) archive called the Commercial Satellite
Imagery Library (CSIL), and send the original to the Corps requester. They buy the im-
agery under a governmental user license contract that licenses free distribution to other
government agencies and their contractors, but not outside of these. It is important for
Corps personnel to adhere to the conditions of the license. Additional information con-
cerning image acquisition is discussed in Chapter 4 (Section 4-1).
a. Turn Around Time. This is another item to consider. That is the time after acquisi-
tion of the image that lapses before it is shipped to TEC-TIO and the original purchaser.
Different commercial providers handle this in different ways, but the usual is to charge an
extra fee for a 1-week turn around, and another fee for a 1 to 2 day turn around. For ex-
ample, SPOT Code Red programmed acquisition costs an extra 00 and guarantees
shipment as soon as acquired. The ERS priority acquisition costs an extra 0 and guar-
antees shipment within 7 days, emergency acquisition cost 00 and guarantees ship-
ment within 2 days, and near real time costs an extra 00 and guarantees shipment as
soon as acquired. Also arrangement may be made for ftp image transfers in emergency
situations. Costs increase in a similar way with RADARSAT, IKONOS, and QuickBird
satellite imaging systems.
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