Sensor

Swath width

The width of the strip of ground the satellite images in a single pass. Determines coverage per acquisition and how quickly a constellation can cover wide areas.

SWATH WIDTH · GROUND COVERAGE IN ONE PASSSENSORSWATHPASSES FOR AOI100 km AOISentinel-210 m290 km1Landsat 8/930 m185 km1TripleSat80 cm23.4 km~5WorldView-330 cm13.1 km~8Beijing-3N30 cm11.5 km~90100200300km
Fig. 1 Swath width sets how much ground a single pass covers. A 100 km × 100 km AOI fits inside one Sentinel-2 pass, but needs roughly eight WorldView-3 passes. For wide-area work, swath is as important as revisit when estimating total collection time.

Swath is the width of ground covered in a single pass. WorldView-3 has a 13.1 km swath. Sentinel-2 has a 290 km swath. Landsat has a 185 km swath. Wider swath means more area per pass but usually lower resolution.

Why it matters

For wide-area monitoring, swath determines how many passes you need to cover the AOI. A 100 km × 100 km area takes 1 pass with Sentinel-2 but ~64 passes with WorldView-3. For a long linear AOI like a pipeline, swath determines how many parallel passes are needed. Always check swath alongside revisit when planning wide-area work.