IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Magazine - March 2014 - 43

Demands and requirements from novel applications
and increased uptake of SAR imagery are the key drivers
to technology and service developments. Satellite builders, operators and data providers continuously strive to
upgrade their space and ground infrastructures to meet the
increasing demands of data users both in the institutional
and the commercial market sectors. A few major trends
in regards to advances in the SAR sensor technology and
novel developments in terms of applications and services
based on radar data are highlighted in the following.
Platforms tailored to resPective
User reqUirements
A first distinct trend of the last years is the growing
interest of small and developing nations in the use of
space systems and applications for the benefit of their
socio-economic development. Since the 1990's, various
developed and emerging countries have drafted their
own national space plan. From 2001 to 2011, the number of nations with space programmes has grown from
26 to 492.
In addition to other space programs (e.g. in the satcom domain), these nations are increasingly thriving to
establish their own remote sensing satellite capabilities.
The main rationale is usually to establish an independent
data acquisition capacity to improve civil security and
quality of live. For these newcomers it is challenging to
enter this domain as the countries need to leverage high
development/operation costs, the long-term dimension
of programs, the limited experience with identification of
requirements and priorities as well as the expected return
on investment.
For these reasons, the first systems with which these
nations enter the spaceborne remote sensing domain are
usually low-cost systems that can be launched quickly.
Such systems enable the nations to start building knowledge of space programs and provide a direct return at economic and social level. Data acquired by these systems
is mainly used for disaster management, monitoring of
natural resources and mapping applications. In addition
to the application-based benefits such systems foster the
technology transfer into these developing nations and
enable them to gain experience in the operation and
exploitation of space systems.
On a next level emerging space nations obtain highend instruments to enhance platforms that are integrated
based on proprietary technology in the country. An
example would be the recently launched KOMPSAT-5 satellite, developed and managed by the Korean Aerospace
Research Center KARI. The design, development and integration of the satellite bus are led by KARI supported by
the national aerospace industry. Experiences from previous programs (KOMPSAT-1/KOMPSAT-2/KOMPSAT-3)
are exploited to enhance the new satellite bus. The X-Band
2Euroconsult, 2012, Profiles of Government Space Programs.

march 2014

ieee Geoscience and remote sensing magazine

figUre 1. Surface movement monitoring using TerraSAR-X radar
satellite data for an underground construction project in Budapest,
Hungary. © 2011 Airbus Defence and Space/Infoterra GmbH.

SAR payload however was subcontracted to Thales Alenia
Space of Italy.
At the other end of the scale mature space nations are
expanding their space programs and improve the quality
and exploitation of their space systems. Depending on
the respective space strategies, the countries follow different implementation roads to achieve their strategic goals.
These countries increasingly implement complex mission
concepts such as different constellation approaches or
even formation flights (e.g. the world's first operational
very close formation flight was implemented with the
German TerraSAR-X and TanDEM-X satellites that fly
at distances of down to a few hundred meters). Another
development are novel schemes to finance the Earth
observation programs, such as commercialisation of the
data (as done in the TerraSAR-X program) or dual use missions such as Cosmo-Skymed. Another way for nations to
satisfy their increasing demand for spaceborne data and
leverage limited financial budgets are Government-toGovernment bartering agreements. By this, nations can
substitute capabilities that are not available in-country
through in-kind exchanges with other nations, benefiting
from possibly advanced technologies available elsewhere
and getting access to state-of-the-art data sources that they
would not be able to finance themselves.
A further increase of SAR data usage can be expected
from the Sentinel-1 satellites, to be launched in the
upcoming years. As part of the European Copernicus
programme these satellites will provide free mediumresolution SAR satellite data. On the one hand, this will
stimulate SAR data exploitation, but it also entails, that
commercial data providers will have to adapt to this new
situation and identify niche markets (e.g. very-high resolution data provision) that cannot be serviced by the Sentinel satellites.
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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Magazine - March 2014