The Pleiades High Resolution Program is an integral part of the European ERS satellite system and is implemented under the guidance of CNES (French space agency) since 2001.
It includes two new-generation satellites of ultra-high spatial resolution - Pleiades-1A and Pleiades-1B, launched into 694 km sun-synchronous orbit on December 16, 2011 and December 2, 2012 respectively. In addition, Pleiades are able to acquire single-pass stereo-pairs and triplets, as well as imaging of up to 100x100 km areas from one pass. The satellites are synchronized in one orbit in such a way as to be able to provide a daily imaging of the same section of the earth's surface. They can provide imaging in any place of 800 kilometers area in less than 25 seconds. Location accuracy is less than 3 m (CE90) without ground control points and 1 m – with ground control points.
Operator: Airbus Defence and Space (France).
Technical Characteristics
| Modes: | Panchromatic | Multispectral |
| Spectral Range (µm): | 0.48–0.83 | blue: 0.43–0.55 green: 0.49–0.61 red: 0.60–0.72 near infrared: 0.79–0.95 |
| Spatial Resolution (nadir viewed), m | 0.5 | 2.0 |
| Maximum off-nadir, degrees | 50 | |
| Location Accuracy, m | CE90 = 4.5 | |
| Swath Width, km | 20 | |
| Imaging Capacity, mln sq km / day | over 1 | |
| Revisit Time, days | Daily (subject to swath width) | |