What does temporal resolution mean?
Temporal resolution refers to how often the same geographic area is revisited by a sensor. Temporal resolution is governed by the orbital characteristics of the satellite vehicle. A sun-synchronous orbit means that the satellite travels on multiple pole to pole orbits coordinated with the circle of illumination (hemisphere of the sun’s incident light), such that the satellite collects at approximately the same time of day at every point on the earth for every orbit. • National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) revisits the same geographic point two times daily at a 1.1-kilometer resolution. • Landsat Thematic Mapper revisits the same point every 16 days at a 30-meter resolution. • SPOT revisits the same point every 14 days collecting both 20-meter multispectral and 10-meter panchromatic resolutions. • Space Imaging’s IKONOS revisits the same point every 16 days collecting both 4-meter multispectral and 1-meter panchromatic
