Swath width

Learn about the swath width of optical collections.


Overview

Swath width is the horizontal ground distance that a sensor covers in a single pass. It affects multispectral and hyperspectral tasking collections.

Swath width significance

When creating a tasking order, the swath width can affect the acquisition time frame. If the order AOI is wider than the sensor’s swath width, the sensor needs multiple passes to capture the AOI entirely. The more passes, the longer it takes to complete the order.

Increasing the incidence angle will increase the effective swath width, but lower the effective ground sampling distance (GSD).

The swath width of a satellite sensor

Availability

The listed swath widths are measured at nadir.

Multispectral satellite imagery

CollectionSwath width
AxelGlobe55 km
Beijing-3A23.5 km
Beijing-3N11.5 km
EROS-B7 km
EROS-C12.5 km
GEOSAT 1600 km
GEOSAT 212 km
GHGSat15 km*
GÖKTÜRK-115 km
KOMPSAT-316 km
KOMPSAT-3A13 km
Landsat 8185 km
Maxar

WorldView Legion: 10 km

WorldView-3: 13.1 km

GeoEye-1: 15.3 km

WorldView-2: 16.4 km

WorldView-1: 17.7 km

Pléiades20 km
Pléiades Neo14 km
Satellogic5 km
SkySat5.9 km
SPOT60 km
TripleSat23.4 km
Vision-120.8 km

*Upon request.

Hyperspectral satellite imagery

CollectionSwath width
Dragonette-120 km
Pixxel40 km