SAOCOM-1A

SAOCOM-1A (Satélite Argentino de Observación Con Microondas 1A) is the first satellite of Argentina’s SAOCOM constellation, developed by CONAE (Argentina’s national space agency) with industrial support from INVAP. SAOCOM-1A carries an L-band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) that can image the Earth’s surface regardless of cloud cover or lighting conditions.

Launched on October 7, 2018, aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 from Vandenberg Air Force Base, SAOCOM-1A operates in a sun-synchronous orbit at approximately 619 km altitude. It forms part of the SIASGE constellation together with the Italian COSMO-SkyMed satellites, enabling joint L- and X-band SAR data services.

The satellite’s primary missions include soil moisture monitoring for agricultural applications, flood and disaster mapping for emergency management, and oil spill detection. Its L-band SAR can penetrate vegetation canopies and dry soil, making it particularly effective for subsurface and crop-root-zone moisture measurements.

With a swath width of up to 350 km and a spatial resolution down to approximately 10 m in stripmap mode, SAOCOM-1A serves both Argentine national needs and the broader Latin American region through CONIDA (Peru) and other partner agencies.