In-flight assessment of SPOT5 image quality

SPOT5, the fifth satellite of the SPOT remote sensing satellite family was successfully launched on the 4th of May 2002. SPOT5 is designed to ensure continuity of data acquisition and space image services but also to provide users with advanced products. It flies two identical cameras named HRG (High Resolution Geometry) providing a 2.5 m and a 5 m resolution in a panchromatic mode and a 10 m resolution in a multi-spectral mode, still keeping a 60-km ground field. Stereo application is part two of the SPOT5 mission; the satellite flies a specific High Resolution Stereo instrument (HRS) made up of two telescopes allowing a 20° fore view and a 20° aft view over a 120-km swath, sampling the landscape every 5m. VEGETATION2, a wide field of view imaging radiometer complements the mission thanks to its daily coverage of the earth. The paper presents the mission, the commissioning phase that followed the satellite launch, the assessment of the image quality and the first calibration results.