Published on 8 January 2024

SWISSIMAGE RS

SWISSIMAGE RS contains an unequalled wealth of information in our “image” product range for the years between 2005 and 2025. Bringing together the 4 spectral bands: near infrared, red, green and blue, these orthophotos provide basic data for many professional applications.

The orthophotos of Switzerland for remote sensing applications

SWISSIMAGE RS is made of orthorectified image strips with 4 spectral bands: the near infrared, the red, the green and the blue. These strips are divided in several segments. Thanks to a straightforward production chain, these images are produced and delivered in a short interval, between 4 and 6 months after their acquisition. The structure in single orthophotos allows keeping accurate information on the acquisition time and date for all strips.

From 2026 onwards, the “near-infrared” spectral band is included in the SWISSIMAGE product.

Applications

Since vegetation reflects solar radiation mainly in the near infrared spectrum, SWISSIMAGE RS is perfect for environmental studies. Distributed as raw as possible, these orthophotos are suited to numerical computations and give especially accurate results. The wealth of information (4 bands) also makes image classification efficient and allows displaying true-color images (red, green, blue).

Prices and Ordering

The dataset is not available for free download. Please send your orders to [e-mail] who will make an offer for the costs of the provision of the data. To facilitate the order, please specify the area of interest (rectangle in Swiss coordinates, municipality, etc.), the format and, if necessary, the resolution or variant.

Terms of use

Additional information

• Technical details

  Ground resolution : 0.1 m in flat areas and 0.25 m in mountainous areas 

  Spectral resolution : NIR [808 - 882 nm], red [619 - 651 nm], green [525 – 585 nm] and blue [435 – 495 nm] 

  Colour depth : 16 bit without histogram stretching 

  Format : TIFF with ZIP compression + TFW (World File) – georeference 

  Coordinate system : LV95 

  Update : SWISSIMAGE RS has been produced from images acquired since 2016 and covers the entire territory of Switzerland and Liechtenstein every three years. The data acquired between 2005 and 2015 has been recalculated and made available with the same characteristics as the data produced from 2016 onwards.

  Structure

  SWISSIMAGE RS is supplied in segments of orthophoto strips. Each strip possess an ID, which gives the time and date of the beginning of image acquisition. Segments from a strip have the same ID (from the corresponding strip) plus an increment 0_0, 0_1, 0_2… to differentiate them. 

  Example : segments 20160420_1253_30030_0_4 and 20160420_1253_30030_ 0_5 belong to the same strip 20160420_1253_30030. The 8 first numbers give the acquisition date and the next 4 give the acquisition time (GMT+0). For example, this strip was acquired the 20th of April 2016 at 12:53 (GMT+0). To get the time of the Swiss time zone, add one hour for the winter time (GMT+1) and 2 hours for the summer time (GMT+2).

  Unlike SWISSIMAGE (RGB), the structure in single orthophotos doesn’t create a mosaic and thus doesn’t make homogeneous representation of large areas possible. Furthermore, overlap between images occurs.

  Quality

  +/- 0.15 m (1 sigma) for the ground resolution 0.1 m and +/- 0.25 m (1 sigma) for the ground resolution 0.25 m, +/- 3-5 m (1 sigma) in complex topographies. 

  These quality values are certified only for the central part (in the flying direction) of the orthophoto strips. At the border of these, the planimetric accuracy may be degraded. However, in such case, the latter is mainly influenced by the accuracy of the DTM used for the orthorectification. Thus, it’s difficult to quantify it. 

  Unlike SWISSIMAGE (RGB), no manual corrections for the radiometry and geometry is performed.

• Availability

  Current status on the availability of SWISSIMAGE RS per year

  • 2025    Completed
  • 2024    Completed
  • 2023    Completed
  • 2022    Completed
  • 2021    Completed
  • 2020    Completed
  • 2019    Completed
  • 2018    Completed
  • 2017    Completed
  • 2016    Completed
  • 2015    Completed
  • 2014    Completed    
  • 2013    Completed
  • 2012    Completed
  • 2011    Completed
  • 2010    Completed
  • 2009    Completed
  • 2008    Completed
  • 2007 (RGB only)   Completed
  • 2006 (RGB only)  Completed
  • 2005 (RGB only)  Completed

• Sample data

  • SWISSIMAGE RS LV95 Resolution 10 & 25 cm

  Sample data shows the type and format of the data and can therefore be used for test purposes.

• Links

  • SWISSIMAGE