AN EYE ON THE EARTH

COSMO-SkyMed

Constellation of Small Satellites for Mediterranean basin Observation

It is one of the most innovative Earth observation programs. It consists of a constellation of four identical satellites.

The satellites were launched respectively:

• on 7^th June 2007, the first satellite;

• on 9^th December 2007, the second satellite;

• on 25^th October 2008, the third satellite;

• on 5^th November 2010, the fourth satellite.

They were launched from the U.S. Base of Vandergerg in California, with the Boeing Delta II launcher.

The four satellites are equipped with radar sensors working at frequencies from 7 to 12.5 GHz (part of the microwaves range in the electromagnetic spectrum).

These satellites are capable to make observations through clouds and in absence of sunlight.

An area of the Earth can be observed with a resolution up to one meter, day or night and in any weather conditions.

The time to revisit of the satellite (the time elapsing between two observations on the same point) is very short, less than twelve hours; this allows monitoring continuously the evolution of an event in a particular area.

COSMO-SkyMed provides global coverage of our planet. It is the first Earth observation satellite system that is designed for civil and military purposes.

The mission has been developed by ASI (Italian Space Agency) in cooperation with the Italian Ministry of Defense.

The applications are designed to defend the territory from fires, landslides, droughts, floods, pollution, earthquakes, management of the natural resources in agriculture and monitoring of the urban sprawl.

The system of COSMO-SkyMed satellites has been used to monitor the leakage of fuel from the cruise ship “Costa Concordia”, which sank in front of the Giglio island on 13^th January 2012, and to monitor and detect any traces of oil pollution.

On 18^th January 2021 COSMO-SkyMed Second Generation (CSG) became operational with the first of four planned satellites. The launch of the satellite took place on 18^th December 2019 from French Guyana, aboard a Soyuz launcher, which also hosted ESA's Cheops mission, dedicated to the characterization of exoplanets. The first COSMO-SkyMed Second Generation satellite joined the four of the first generation satellites, in order to improve the overall performance. Therefore, COSMO-SkyMed constellation has five satellites in orbit and they are all operational.

Find out more about COSMO-SkyMed Second Generation and about the satellites dedicated to the study and observation of the Earth from space: click HERE