SAR - Lupe
SAR - Lupe
Satellites as carriers of optical or radar sensors can - unlike aircraft or unmanned aerial vehicles - carry out reconnaissance operations without infringing sovereign rights. They are thus particularly suited to gathering information – without escalating effect – for early crisis detection and prevention and for effective crisis management. Compared to optical satellites, radar satellites have the advantage that they can carry out reconnaissance tasks irrespective of the time of day or the weather.
The SAR-Lupe (Synthetic Aperture Radar) concept is based on five identical radar satellites in three offset polar orbits at a height of approximately 500 kilometers. Due to the physical mode of operation of a synthetic aperture radar each of the five satellites can provide stripmap and spotlight imagery modes. These radars are side-looking radars that can take images to the left and to the right of their orbit, but not at the same time. Their constellation ensures that there are no gaps between the areas kept under surveillance by the five satellites.
The ground station consists of a satellite and a user ground segment. The satellite ground segment includes satellite control, data reception and image processing. The user ground segment contains the elements mission control / coordination, image analysis and archiving.
Meanwhile, the first four satellites were boosted into their orbits from the Russian spaceport Plesetsk by means of COSMOS-3M rockets and have been put into operation. The last one is scheduled to be launched within the course of 2008.
SAR-Lupe/HELIOS II System Network
In 2000, France and Germany already announced plans to develop an independent European satellite reconnaissance network. Germany will contribute its all-weather radar satellite system SAR-Lupe and France its complementary optical satellite system HELIOS II operated in collaboration with Belgium, Greece, Italy and Spain.
The ministers of defense of France and Germany signed a first treaty on the execution of coordinated studies on the SAR-Lupe/HELIOS II system network in 2002. A concept for the sharing of the common satellite system with the aid of the ground system network was developed by the Délégation génerale pour l’Armement (DGA) and the BWB.
From end of November 2006, the associated realization contracts were concluded by the DGA and the BWB on the basis of an Implementing Arrangement signed in 2006. Use of the system network is scheduled to begin at the end of 2009. In this network, each nation will develop its missions for the common system and submit them to the partner nation for integration into the planning process. The acquired image data will be immediately available to the user and can be analyzed and archived in the national ground segment.
