ACRES STAR Service

Speedy Transmission after Reception

ACRES STAR Service provides customers with access to digital satellite image products within 12 hours of a satellite overpass. The service features priority acquisitions by ACRES ground stations, immediate transmission of raw data to the Canberra processing facility via new high-speed communication links and high priority processing to customer specifications.

Requests for STAR Service are required as early as possible before acquisition - preferably 3 weeks. This enables the satellite to be programmed and maximises the chance of satellite availability.

Service parameters

Satellites supported	Landsat 5, RADARSAT and ERS
Scene size and processing levels	All Path Image and Map Oriented Image products except Landsat scenes greater than a full scene.
Delivery and turnaround time	Within 12 hours of acquisition, the customer will be notified that the processed product, full resolution and/or sub-sampled, is available from the ACRES FTP site. (It is possible that this turnaround time will be significantly less than 12 hours.) In addition, the full resolution product will be written to media in the same time frame and sent by the next available courier.
Data formats and media	Full resolution digital image is available in ACRES standard formats and on ACRES standard media. Compressed image format available in jpeg (1 or 3 bands), GeoTIFF (1 or 3 bands), MrSID (1 or 3 bands) or ECW (multiple bands). Note that compressed images will have slightly reduced data quality.
Successful acquisition	A successful acquisition occurs when ACRES downloads the required data from the satellite. For Landsat 5, a successful acquisition also means that the product area ordered by the client is obscured by a total of less than 10% cloud cover, or any greater percentage defined by the customer at the time of ordering.
Price	$400 in addition to the standard ACRES price for that product. (Additional fees apply for placing "RADARSAT acquisition requests"-please check with ACRES).

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Placing an order

Contact your preferred ACRES distributor who will enquire about satellite availability and subsequently place an order during normal ACRES business hours. Two to three week's notice for future acquisition is required to help ensure satellite availability. The table below shows the required time and, in the case of genuine emergencies only, the minimum time needed to program a satellite before acquisition. Note that additional charges apply for RADARSAT data.

All acquisitions are subject to satellite availability, even when requests are made within the specified time frames. Please place your request and order as early as possible to maximise the chance of satellite availability.

Satellite	Required time before acquisition to place request	Emergencies only. Minimum time before acquisition to place request (approx.)	Extra charge for emergency time frames
RADARSAT	3 weeks^#	34 to 65 hours* - proof of emergency required	Please check with ACRES
Landsat 5	3 weeks^#	36 to 72 hours	No charge
ERS	3 weeks^#	> 7 days	No charge
# Requests within this time frame will be considered. However, early requests maximise the chance of satellite availability. * Time varies depending on location of required scene.

Comparison with standard turnaround times

Without the STAR Service it normally takes serveral days after reception to freight raw satellite data to ACRES Canberra office for processing. Product generation takes an additional 3 days for standard processing or 36 hours for priority processing. The STAR Service reduces this whole process to just 12 hours after satellite reception.

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Terms and conditions

A confirmed STAR request constitutes a firm order and the customer is obliged to purchase the product following a "successful acquisition".
For Landsat, a maximum of 5 acquisition attempts per order will be made until a successful acquisition occurs. (One acquisition attempt per order will be made for RADARSAT and ERS due to cloud not being a problem.)
Acquisition attempts should be booked three weeks in advance, as described above. Consideration will be given to requests within this time frame, e.g. emergencies.
Satellite programming for the STAR Service is treated as a Priority Acquisition Request.
All acquisitions are subject to satellite availability and made on a best effort basis. ACRES reserves the right to reject a STAR request.
If an acquisition is unsuccessful no charge is made.
If ACRES exceeds the 12 hour time frame, no STAR fee is payable. In such cases, the customer has the option of accepting the product at normal ACRES price, or rejecting the product with no money payable.