An integrated hyperspectral and SAR satellite constellation for environment monitoring

A fully-integrated, Hyperspectral optical and SAR (Synthetic Aperture Radar) constellation of small earth observation satellites will be deployed over multiple launches from last December to next five years. The Constellation is expected to comprise a minimum of 16 satellites (8 SAR and 8 optical ) flying in two orbital planes, with each plane consisting of four satellite pairs, equally-spaced around the orbit plane. Each pair of satellites will consist of a hyperspectral/mutispectral optical satellite and a high-resolution SAR satellite (X-band) flying in tandem. The constellation is expected to offer a number of innovative capabilities for environment monitoring. As a pre-launch experiment, two hyperspectral earth observation minisatellites, Spark 01 and 02 were launched as secondary payloads together with Tansat in December 2016 on a CZ-2D rocket. The satellites feature a wide-range hyperspectral imager. The ground resolution is 50 m, covering spectral range from visible to near infrared (420 nm - 1000 nm) and a swath width of 100km. The imager has an average spectral resolution of 5 nm with 148 channels, and a single satellite could obtain hyperspectral imagery with 2.5 million km2 per day, for global coverage every 16 days. This paper describes the potential applications of constellation image in environment monitoring.