When the resolution of the Wide Area Camera isn't enough, users can click anywhere  on the wide-area image to slew the high-resolution Spot Beam to the area of interest.  The Spot Beam uses a 16 megapixel CCD to give users over 2x better resolution.

 If users don't need higher resolution, the Spot Beam enters an automated "step-stare"  algorithm to capture over a gigapixel of information every five minutes. The Spot Beam  imagery is automatically written and databased onto the VISION Image Server for  users to look at later.