SAOCOM SAR Satellite
L-Band Synthetic Aperture Radar Earth observation satellite for agriculture, soil moisture, and emergency management.
Technical specifications
- Orbit
- Sun-synchronous LEO (~620 km)
- SAR Frequency
- L-Band (1.27 GHz)
- Resolution
- 3–10 m (stripmap)
- Swath Width
- 30–320 km
- Polarization
- Full Quad-pol
- Mass
- ~1,600 kg
- Design Lifetime
- 5 years
About
The SAOCOM (Satélite Argentino de Observación Con Microondas) is an L-Band SAR satellite platform developed by INVAP for CONAE (Argentina’s national space agency). The SAOCOM constellation consists of two identical satellites — SAOCOM-1A (launched 2018) and SAOCOM-1B (launched 2020) — operating in a sun-synchronous LEO orbit at approximately 620 km altitude.
The L-Band SAR operates at 1.27 GHz with full polarimetry capabilities, enabling penetration through cloud cover and vegetation canopy. Primary applications include soil moisture monitoring for agricultural optimization, flood mapping, disaster response, and urban subsidence detection. The satellites carry a 3-m resolution imaging mode and a 50–100 m wide-swath mode.
SAOCOM represents INVAP’s highest achievement in satellite manufacturing and established Argentina as one of a small number of countries capable of designing and building SAR satellites end-to-end.
Documentation
No public datasheet yet — request the datasheet / ICD from the supplier.
