1. SAOCOM PROJECT a joint Argentine-Italian SAR-L Mission
COMISION NACIONAL DE ACTIVIDADES ESPACIALES
SAOCOM PROJECT
a joint Argentine-Italian SAR-L Mission
Mission overview and
Outline of the Global Background Mission
Laura Frulla, CONAE
Presented by: Ake Rosenqvist, soloEO
CEOS SDCG-4
Pasadena, CA/USA – 4-6 Sep 2013

2. SAOCOM Mission Objectives
To satisfy user needs in Argentina and Italy
To satisfy Space Information Cycles-of the Argentine National
Space Program:
agriculture, fishing and forestry,
weather and climate, hydrology and oceanography,
emergencies,
environment and natural resources of land and sea,
urban areas, cartography, geology, mining and territorial planning,
health
To operationally integrate the SIASGE System composed by
Argentine-Italian SAOCOM Constellation and the Italian
COSMO-Skymed Constellation in order to implement a double
band (X+L) SAR joint Mission between ASI and CONAE

3. Main Mission Drivers
To develop soil moisture products for specific Argentinian areas in order to give support to agricultural and hydrological applications
To allow applications of Italian interest over Europe

4. repeat cycle of 16 days for each satellite
Mission Overview
a constellation of two identical satellites, SAOCOM 1A and SAOCOM 1B, carrying each one a polarimetric L-band SAR instrument (1,275 GHz)
Sun synchronous, nearly circular frozen polar orbit (06:12 am LTAN/619.6 km)
repeat cycle of 16 days for each satellite
(8 days for the constellation)
Mission lifetime: 5 years
Launch:
SAOCOM 1A: 2015
SAOCOM 1B: 2016 4

5. Mission Acquisition Strategy
Baseline mission
Foreground mission
Background mission

6. SAOCOM – Baseline mission
Fixed acquisitions:
For soil moisture
over the Pampas (main Argentinian region dedicated to agriculture and cattle – 83 Mha)
Sensor calibration
Specific point targets in Argentina and Italy (Europe)
Homogeneous rain forest areas in the Amazon and Congo basins

7. SAOCOM – Foreground mission
Variable acquisitions (world-wide)
User requests through CONAE’s Spatial Information Cycles programme (from Argentina and abroad)
ASI interest area, including exclusivity area
ASI exclusivity area
ASI area of interest

8. SAOCOM – Background mission (referred to the Argentine interest)
To foresee acquisitions of certain valuable data to generate a data base useful for future uses according to available resources
Fixed acquisitions
Argentinian institutional users
National acquisition plan under development. Predetermined acquisition plans for (20) dedicated application areas defined by Argentinian institutions and user groups
Natural resources mapping, Emergency mitigation, volcanoes, maritime surveillance, etc.
Perhaps it is important to clarify that the figure is showing all: Baseline and Background missions over Argentina because the Pampas region observations are included. The important thing to enhance is that these observations (Baseline & Background) were considered to compute and estimate the System Capabilities.

9. SAOCOM –Background Mission (world wide)
Global Background Mission (GBM)
GBM currently under development for SAOCOM-1A and SAOCOM-1B
CONAE thematic objective: Forest biomass
Building consistent archives over global forests
First focus: Forests in the pan-tropical zone
Second focus: Siberian forests
Third: Others (TBD)

10. SAOCOM – Background Mission (world wide)
Global Background Mission
Annual dual season pan-tropical observations

11. SAOCOM – Background Mission (world wide)
Global Background Mission
Annual dual season pan-tropical observations

12. SAOCOM – Background Mission (world wide)
Global Background Mission
Second priority: Siberian boreal zone

13. SAOCOM – Background Mission (world wide)
Global Background Mission
Compliant with CEOS/SDCG recommendations
Repetitive annual observations over the pan-tropical zone
Dual season (wet and dry)
Fine spatial resolution (10m)
Dual polarisation (HH+HV)
Max acquisition time for GBM 5 min/orbit to minimise impact on high priority observations
Acquisition planning for SAOCOM-1B has started (Sept 2013)