SAOCOM: Argentine Satellite of Observation with Microwaves
Small-big steps
Almost 30 years had passed since that January 22, 1990, when it was placed in orbit the first Argentinian satellite [1]. That first "small-big step" was called Lusat-1, which had the main objective of giving satellite coverage to radio amateurs [2]. Then, and in tune with the economic swings of the country, typical of this magical realism called Latin America, came the MU-SAT microsatellite to test low-cost communications and imaging technologies [3] and NAHUEL 1-A, a private telecommunications satellite [4].
In 1991 the Comisión Nacional de Actividades Espaciales (CONAE,) was created [5] and right after that came the SAC (Satellites of Scientific Applications) series. The astronomical satellite SAC-B was the first and the SAC-A satellite for technology validation purposes. The third one was the terrestrial observation satellite SAC-C and the last but not least was the SAC-D/Aquarius a satellite for the observation of climate and ocean, a NASA-CONAE partnership [6].
Recently, in 2014, the country was able to launch the geostationary communication satellite ARSAT 1 and in 2015 the ARSAT 2, both developed by INVAP [7], a national private company created by Conrado Varotto [8], the promoter of national space development and former Director of CONAE.
CONAE, VENG and INVAP staff two days before the launch (Credits: CONAE press)
What a Spatial Night
On Sunday October 7, the launch day, had its culminate moment at 23.21 (local time) when scientists, engineers, technicians, but also family and friends gathered at the Teofilo Tabanera Space Center took off from the ground between hugs, laughter and tears and flew together to the Falcon-9 rocket with the payload of hundreds of thousands of hours of women and men condensed in the form of a 1.5 tons’ satellite named SAOCOM 1A.
In any South American country to measure the excitement aroused by any event that is considered transcendental is compared with football, the most popular sport by far. Given the 500 people seated in front of big TV any observer without knowing of what happened that night in the dining room CONAE, could have thought that it was some important match or even the World Cup final was being played.
Researchers, technicians and general public at the Cultural Science Center Buenos Aires-Argentina (Credits: CONAE press)
CONAE staff gathered with their relatives and friends at the Space Center Teofilo Tabanera, Córdoba-Argentina (Credits: CONAE press)
The Mission
The SAOCOM (Satélite Argentino de Observación Con Microondas) mission consists of two satellites: SAOCOM 1A and 1B, that will be part of a six satellites constellation, SIASGE, the Italian-Argentinian System for the Emergencies Management, all of them with a main instrument called Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) [9]. This instrument emits photons in the microwave region and then records the interaction of these photons with the Earth's surface. Four of the SIASGE constellation are the COSMO SkyMed satellites (already in orbit) of the Italian Space Agency (ASI) [10] and the remaining two satellites will be the SAOCOMs. All of them will orbit the Earth (heliosynchronous polar orbit) at a height of 650 km, allowing to obtain images at any point of the globe every 12 hours. One of the most important features is the complementarity of the information that this constellation will provide. While the Italian satellites obtain information in the so-called X-band (8.2 to 12.4 GHz) which has the characteristic of having a good geometric resolution and low penetration (does not penetrate the canopy or the ground), SAOCOM will work in the L-Band (from 1.5 to 2.9 GHz), penetrating not only the clouds, but also the canopy and even to a certain depth of the ground depending of its humidity [11]. The fact that penetrates the clouds is a very important aspect, since the area where it is expected to obtain validated and operational information (central region of Argentina), more than one-third of the time is cloudy.
Team of engineers posing with the SAR antenna (Credits: CONAE press)
Main purposes of SAOCOM
The Argentine National Space Plan [12] defines 3 strategic areas: Environment (water, land cover, atmosphere and climate), Production (agriculture, forestry, fishing, mining and energy) and Social (public health, emergencies and territorial integrity and security). For these reasons the images obtained of the whole planet (with revisit time of 16 days) by SAOCOM 1A, will be process to obtain information oriented to emergencies and catastrophes, panoramic epidemiology, environmental issues and natural resources [13].
Once the images have been processed in CONAE, it will be distributed to the different users through the so-called satellite products. Examples of this will be the products for early warnings designed to identify areas at risk of flooding, fire risks, landslide risks, etc. Applications will also be developed to detect crops diseases, to estimate the amount of available water for irrigation, to detect infrastructure changes (eg. in urban areas), displacement of glaciers, vessels monitoring (eg, poaching) among other. In turn, SAOCOM 1A will contribute to the Sustainable Development Goals, specifically to the Objective 13 "Action for Climate" [14], generating information to improve the ability to adapt to the risks related to climate disasters.
Social impact
Since the design and construction of satellites, as well as the development of applications with its sensors information can cover a vast field of science, numerous possibilities open up for the development of numerous technologies. Added to this, the interaction and collaborative work between public institutions and private companies (more than 100 for the SAOCOM mission) [15] have a great impact on the development of the technological industry, which will give to Argentina a better chance to produce and export highly sophisticated goods and service. An example of the knowledge acquired in the development of the SAR antenna is the development, construction and installation in more than 20 Argentine airports of security systems for air traffic and the development of meteorological radars [16].
But also it will have a huge impact on society because of a greater access to information for decision making but most important for the local and regional science and education development. In this sense CONAE and the National University of Córdoba through the Gulich Institute [17] is in the process of training master's and doctoral students oriented to the generation of scientific knowledge by means of the SAOCOM mission. Every year the Institute receives students from all over Latin America, thus contributing to the strengthening and integration of the science of remote sensing in the region.
It is important to note that SAOCOM mission benefits will go far beyond the Argentine territory. Uruguay, Chile, Paraguay, Bolivia, México, Ecuador and Argentina, are carrying out the collaborative SIRIS (Regional Integral Satellite Information System) project funded by the Inter-American Development Bank to develop novel applications using SAOCOM data to address issues and challenges in agriculture, water resources management, fires prevention and epidemics [16].
The results are already glimpsing. It is without any doubt that this mission is a concrete example of the strategic importance of investing in the development of science and technology and even more for a developing country like ours.
References
[1] J. L. Favier, «El primer satélite argentino LUSAT-1.», Revista de la Universidad de Mendoza, vol. 0, n.o 8/9, feb. 2014.
[2] «Ya orbita la Tierra el satélite fabricado en Córdoba - LA NACION». [En línea]. Disponible en: https://www.lanacion.com.ar/172658-ya-orbita-la-tierra-el-satelite-fabricado-en-cordoba. [Accedido: 01-nov-2018].
[3] «CIENCIA HOY 43 - AQUÍ CIENCIA - El Proyecto Microsat: Primer satélite argentino en orbita - 1». [En línea]. Disponible en: http://www.cienciahoy.org.ar/ch/hoy43/micros1.htm. [Accedido: 01-nov-2018].
[4] «Nahuel 1, primer satélite privado de la región», 15-may-1998. [En línea]. Disponible en: https://www.lanacion.com.ar/96651-nahuel-1-primer-satelite-privado-de-la-region. [Accedido: 01-nov-2018].
[5] ARSAT - Empresa Argentina de Soluciones Satelitales, El sector espacial argentino. Instituciones, empresas y desafíos. 2014.
[6] R. C. Harding, Space Policy in Developing Countries: The Search for Security and Development on the Final Frontier. Routledge, 2012.
[7] «Satélites ARSAT». [En línea]. Disponible en: http://www.invap.com.ar/es/espacial-y-gobierno/proyectos-espaciales/satelite-arsat.html. [Accedido: 01-nov-2018].
[8] «Conrado Varotto», Wikipedia, la enciclopedia libre. 14-ago-2018.
[9] A. M. Viscardi, «El Programa Espacial Argentino, 1960-2008», Un análisis de largo plazo, nov. 2010.
[10] F.Covello et al., «COSMO-SkyMed an existing opportunity for observing the Earth», Journal of Geodynamics, vol. 49, n.o 3, pp. 171-180, abr. 2010.
[11] R. F. Hanssen, F. van Leijen, N. Pierdicca, N. Floury, y U. Wegmuller, «L-band multistatic radar interferometry for 3D deformation vector decomposition», en 2015 IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium (IGARSS), 2015, pp. 4057-4060.
[12] «Plan Espacial Nacional», Argentina.gob.ar, 30-may-2018. [En línea]. Disponible en: https://www.argentina.gob.ar/ciencia/conae/plan-espacial. [Accedido: 01-nov-2018].
[13] «Comisión Nacional de Actividades Espaciales - Introducción». [En línea]. Disponible en: http://www.conae.gov.ar/index.php/espanol/misiones-satelitales/saocom/objetivos. [Accedido: 01-nov-2018].
[14] «Objetivo 13: Acción por el clima | PNUD», UNDP. [En línea]. Disponible en: http://www.undp.org/content/undp/es/home/sustainable-development-goals/goal-13-climate-action.html. [Accedido: 01-nov-2018].
[15] «Misiones SAOCOM». [En línea]. Disponible en: http://www.invap.com.ar/es/proyectos-espaciales/satelites-saocom.html. [Accedido: 01-nov-2018].
[16] «Mejoras productivas y desarrollo vía satélite». [En línea]. Disponible en: https://blogs.iadb.org/puntossobrelai/2018/09/27/satelite-argentino-saocom/. [Accedido: 01-nov-2018].
[17] «Instituto Gulich – 20 años Innovando en Ciencia, Tecnología y Educación Espacial». [En línea]. Disponible en: http://ig.conae.unc.edu.ar/. [Accedido: 01-nov-2018].
