The COSMO-SkyMed system is the unique constellation of four radar satellites for Earth Observation.

Founded by the Italian Space Agency and the Italian Ministry of Defence, COSMO-SkyMed is at the forefront of technology and uses high-resolution radar sensors to observe the Earth day and night, regardless of weather conditions.

Its purpose is to monitor the Earth for the sake of emergency prevention, strategy, scientific and commercial purposes, providing data on a global scale to support a variety of applications among which risk management, Emergency response, Maritime surveillance, Infrastructure monitoring, Oil&Gas offshore e onshore exploration, Oil pullution at the sea, forest & environment protection, natural resources exploration, land management, defense and security, food &  agriculture management.

A new generation of COSMO-SkyMed radar satellites is ready: Cosmo-SkyMed Second Generation.
The COSMO-SkyMed Second Generation is at the forefront of radar technologies and will ensure improvements and guarantee continuity with the first generation satellites, preserving the high quality and the highest precision features, both required for the interferometric activities.

The COSMO-SkyMed satellite main payload is an X-band, multi-resolution and multi-polarisation imaging radar, with various resolutions (from 1 to 100 meters) over a large access region. It is equipped with a fixed antenna, having electronic steering capabilities that can manage a large number of operative modes for the image acquisition and for internal calibrations. The nominal incidence angles (where the system grants the image quality requested) vary between 20° and 59°.

Planetek Italia collaborated in the development of the components of both COSMO-SkyMed First Generation and COSMO-SkyMed Second Generation

HOW TO OBTAIN COSMO-SKYMED IMAGES

Planetek Italia is a provider of COSMO-SkyMed data, thanks to its agreement with e-GEOS, exclusive distributor which operates on behalf of ASI, the IC-UGS (Italian Civilian User Ground Segment) at the Matera Space Center.

Acquisition modes

1. Spotlight: 1 m resolution and 10km x 10km swath.
2. StripMap: 3 m resolution and 40km x 40km swath.
3. StripMap PINGPONG: 15 m resolution and 30km x 30km swath. Available polarizations HH, HV, VH and VV.
4. ScanSARWIDE: 30 m resolution and 100km x 100km swath.
5. ScanSARHUGE: 100 m resolution and 200km x 200km swath.

Operational modes:

• Routine: every 24h planning.
• Crisis: every 12h planning. In this mode it is possible to define areas with higher priority.
• Emergency: operational mode with highest priority activation for the fastest collection of images for emergency situations.

More info: COSMO-SkyMed: Product Handbook; User Guide; Product Sheet