COSMO-SkyMed Second Generation — the prime SAR constellation on the market integrated with SAOCOM in a unique combination of SAR Systems.
The satellite-based Earth Observation industry is witnessing exponential growth in terms of technological and market development. And a rising tide of acceptance and usage of Synthetic Aperture RADAR (SAR) data has occurred during recent years. This trend results from the increasing availability of commercial SAR satellite data, advanced processing and analytics tools, and industry-driven initiatives.
SAR has become an effective Earth Observation technology used globally for various applications due to its capability of monitoring the Earth’s surface at night and day and in any weather condition. Recent advances have noticeably increased the SAR monitoring potential by improving spatial resolution, revisit time, swath width, and polarimetric capability.
While defense and intelligence agencies remain the largest SAR imagery consumers, commercial applications are the fastest-growing market segment. Customers in agriculture, forestry, energy, oil extraction sites, finance, infrastructure, disaster preparation and response, and other sectors are all rapidly adopting SAR, which they often use in ways that are complementary to optical imagery.
Advantages of Synthetic Aperture RADAR (SAR)
The primary advantage of the SAR is that the remote sensing activities may be carried out continuously regardless of the weather conditions. SAR satellites can be used at night or with a thick cloud cover over the area of interest. SAR offers the ability to monitor vast areas over short periods. For example, gathering imagery of an area of interest with dimensions of 150×60 kilometers takes around 35 seconds. Capturing optical imagery of such a small area on Earth can take up a few days with a proper resolution. Another advantage of SAR is that the imagery, in particular from X-band satellites, is very detailed and can detect and map even small objects with high accuracy.
The new Polar Star of radar satellites
Rapid innovation in this area has led to increased observational capability and has created new opportunities in various application areas. The SAR capabilities that e-GEOS can deploy using the best constellation on the market, COSMO-SkyMed (comprising the existing COSMO-SkyMed constellation and recently operational COSMO-SkyMed Second Generation), and the best combination of SAR data from the two systems COSMO-SkyMed Second Generation and SAOCOM will be shown during the free webinar on the 30th April.
COSMO-SkyMed Second Generation constellation, which first satellite became fully operational in January 2021, represents the new Polar Star of the radar satellites. It is the follow-up system of the COSMO-SkyMed constellation, owned by the Italian Space Agency (ASI) and the Italian Ministry of Defence.
The Argentine SAOCOM constellation, composed of two identical satellites (SAOCOM 1A and 1B) together with the COSMO-SkyMed constellation, is part of the SIASGE, a joint project between CONAE and ASI.
e-GEOS is the exclusive global commercial reseller of COSMO-SkyMed first and second generation, the most advanced Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) constellation.
What makes COSMO-SkyMed Second Generation a class apart?
- Expansion of the COSMO-SkyMed first-generation system
- Best SAR resolution in-ground range (0.5 m) over the 20-60° incidence angle range
- Best Combination of high resolution and wide footprint
- Best Radiometric quality
- Dual Polarization for all imaging modes
- QuadPol mode
- Special mode for the acquisition of 2 images at once / The CSG system is the only SAR system available that allows acquiring two images at once, thanks to its unique DI2S mode
- The multi-looking choice for selecting the best resolution or reduced speckle to match your operational needs
- Interferometric processing using first and second-generation data for Stripmap mode
- Increased number of daily acquisitions to support large projects on a worldwide basis
- Polarization:
- All COSMO-SkyMed Second Generation imaging modes can be ordered with Single or Dual polarization.
- At the highest resolutions, the two polarization channels provide a better understanding of the target by characterizing backscattering type, orientation, and other parameters.
Unique combination
The joint operability between COSMO-SkyMed and SAOCOM doubles the daily coverage capability, providing exceptional revisit frequencies for specific operational requirements. While COSMO SkyMed provides very high-resolution results detecting millimetric movements yearly, SAOCOM can detect faster movements with the same acquisition geometry as COSMO-SkyMed.
Through its L-band SAR unique technology, the SAOCOM satellites can penetrate the vegetation cover and the soil, collecting information for soil moisture, risk maps, and interferometry products. The complementarity between X-band and L-band images guarantees additional high-quality data for several applications (e.g., natural resources identification, interferometry, and glaciology).
The orbital configuration of the two missions will also make it possible to acquire the same target with X and L band at a distance of only 14 minutes, allowing unique analysis capabilities. Combining the two systems enables a synergy to monitor for instance fast moving phenomena that can not be analyzed precisely by independent X-band platforms.
Find out some exclusive potentials of SAR in a webinar dedicated to SAR capabilities that e-GEOS offers using the best constellation on the market, COSMO-SkyMed Second, and the best combination SAR data from the two systems COSMO-SkyMed Second and SAOCOM. It’s a FREE WEBINAR on 30 April 2021, 15.00 (CEST).
