Vexcel takes US aerial imagery to new heights with 7.5cm resolution

Vexcel is doubling the detail of its existing Wide Area Program to launch the first nationwide US aerial imagery programme at 7.5cm resolution. Scheduled to begin in January 2027, the programme will cover all 48 contiguous states and set a new benchmark for industries ranging from AI and insurance to infrastructure and disaster response.

According to Vexcel, the new imagery delivers 16 times more pixel detail than the highest-resolution commercial satellite imagery on the market (30cm), with direct implications for AI-driven analytics, precision mapping and automated feature extraction. Annually, the programme will collect 4.5 to 5 million square kilometres across the United States, refreshing coverage for 90% of the population twice per year and reaching 96% at least once.

Alongside orthomosaic and multispectral imagery, the programme will generate a nationwide digital surface model (DSM), the most detailed elevation dataset ever assembled across the contiguous United States. These datasets will also feed Vexcel's Intelligence and Elements platforms, enabling customers to extract vector data and query the physical world using natural language.

New possibilities in large-scale aerial imagery

This announcement continues a trajectory that Vexcel, then part of Microsoft, began in 2010 when it pioneered the world's first seamless nationwide aerial mapping programme at 30cm resolution. Subsequent programmes pushed that to 20cm in 2018 and 15cm in 2022. The move to 7.5cm represents the latest step in a consistent pattern of resolution gains driven by advances in Vexcel's proprietary UltraCam sensor and processing technology.

"For more than two decades, Vexcel has pushed the boundaries of what's possible in large-scale aerial imagery," said Erik Jorgensen, Group CEO of Vexcel. "As AI models and digital systems increasingly depend on accurate and high-fidelity representations of the physical world, this programme will provide a new foundation for understanding places, infrastructure, property and change at national scale."

Disaster response and global expansion

Beyond routine mapping, the enhanced collection capacity will significantly bolster Vexcel's Gray Sky Programme, which deploys imagery teams in the critical hours and days following natural disasters. The company notes that covering up to 75% of Florida's population in a single day following a major hurricane is now operationally feasible, a capability with clear implications for insurers, emergency managers and government agencies.

Vexcel has also signalled plans to extend the 7.5cm programme to Europe, where it currently maintains country-wide aerial coverage across more than 20 nations at 15cm resolution.