Enhanced SAR Satellite Capabilities Introduced by ICEYE
Enhanced SAR satellite capabilities covering 10,000 km² (3,800 square miles) data acquisitions are now commercially available from Finnish new space company ICEYE.
"We've done trials to Scan image areas as large as 100 km x 400 km (60 x 250 miles) with a single acquisition, covering areas at once that would take more than 1500 Spot images as a comparison."
Pekka Laurila, CSO & Co-founder, ICEYE.
The company says its enhanced SAR (Synthetic Aperture Radar) satellite constellation is the first to achieve wide-area Scan mode imaging, with up to a 100-times larger area coverage from the closest alternatives in the marketplace. Thanks to the completely unique system design of ICEYE's SAR satellites, ICEYE is now able to provide the world's single most comprehensive persistent monitoring capabilities both for land and sea data use cases.
"It's really exciting to see another world first from ICEYE. Our leading-edge persistent monitoring capabilities, now boosted with Scan mode, enable our commercial and government customers to quickly and effortlessly survey huge areas for purposes such as sea ice monitoring, ensuring maritime safety and national security use cases," said Steve Young, Vice President, Business Development and Sales, ICEYE. "Our unique satellite constellation and technology approach makes ICEYE's capability something alternative approaches simply aren't able to match."
"ICEYE's ability to now generate wide coverage imaging brings an addition to the radar based service market, in particular for maritime users," said Marte Indregard, Chief Commercial Officer at KSAT, an ICEYE data customer and partner. "As the largest buyer of SAR data for maritime applications we know there is a strong demand for Scan mode images providing effective large area coverage, and we are eager to start delivering this to our customers world-wide."
ICEYE's new Scan imaging is particularly effective for acquiring wide coverage imagery for maritime use cases, where national security authorities and maritime safety officials require persistent visibility into large sea areas. The alternative methods of monitoring these areas, such as airplanes and sending out patrol vessels to sea, are costly and not always feasible due to inclement weather or night time. Radar satellite imaging works both day and night, and even through cloud cover. ICEYE says it is the only New Space SAR data provider with enhanced SAR satellite capabilities designed to supports comprehensive wide area imaging.
"We've done trials to Scan image areas as large as 100 km x 400 km (60 x 250 miles) with a single acquisition, covering areas at once that would take more than 1500 Spot images as a comparison," said Pekka Laurila, CSO & Co-founder, ICEYE. "ICEYE continues to lead the way with several world first technology innovations for the benefit of our customers, as we have continually done since we launched the world's first New Space SAR satellite over 3 years ago."
(Image provided with ICEYE news release)