Surveillance: “the Eyes in the Sky”

Collecting intelligence, designating targets, mapping, crisis management… Spaceborne resources give governments a wide range of surveillance tools to guarantee their security and sovereignty. More and more countries today want to deploy their own space systems to provide images for intelligence purposes. Thales Alenia Space is developing a range of competitive and high-performance observation satellites for export customers, based on over 30 years of experience with military and dual programs for France and Italy. The company is also investing heavily in its Cannes plant, to expand capacity so it can simultaneously integrate four optical payloads for observation satellites.

The 2015 Paris Air Show provided Thales Alenia Space an excellent opportunity to review its globally recognized expertise in very-high-resolution radar and optical observation systems, and to emphasize its new products: Earth Observer Optical, Earth Observer Radar, Compact SAR.

Earth Observer Optical

 

Earth-Observer Optical is a state-of-the-art turnkey system designed for operational applications including surveillance, agriculture, urban planning, risk management and monitoring of natural disasters. It ensures global coverage and complete user independence for a period of ten years. Compatible with small launchers, Earth Observer-Optical is an extremely competitive product, offering high acquisition capabilities to meet even the most demanding requirements. This solution can be applied within the scope of an extensive collaboration scheme, personalized according to each country's needs, including operational support and training (both classroom and in-service). Thales Alenia Space clearly aims to support the local development of applications keyed to each country's specific needs, along with a full slate of enterprise services.

Earth Observer Radar

 

Earth Observer Radar is an extremely flexible and high-performance satellite solution based on an active synthetic aperture radar (SAR) type antenna. It provides resolution ranging from low to medium to very-high. Earth Observer Radar is ideal for dual missions, when users have to combine civil and military applications.

Compact SAR

 

Compact SAR is a competitive and high-performance solution based on a small satellite with a synthetic aperture radar (SAR) antenna, for very-high-resolution imagery. It is perfectly suited to defense and surveillance applications.
 

Thales Alenia Space's expertise in high-resolution optical and radar applications

 

Thales Alenia Space's track record in this field includes:

  • Exclusive supplier for the last 30 years of the high and very-high resolution instruments on French intelligence satellites (Helios, Pleiades, CSO families).
  • Prime contractor for the Italian Cosmo-SkyMed radar observation system, a dual-use constellation comprising four satellites. It is considered one of the most reliable and advanced systems of its type in the world.
  • Prime contractor for the only high-resolution observation satellites exported by France, especially the Gokturk system for the Turkish Ministry of Defense.
  • European specialist in high-resolution radar imaging. Thales Alenia Space supplied the electronics for the radar instruments on the SAR-Lupe constellation of 5 satellites, which provides high-resolution images of the Earth to the German Ministry of Defense. Thales Alenia Space built similar instruments for the Kompsat 5 satellite on behalf of the South Korean space agency.
  • Specialist in very-high-resolution optical instruments. Thales Alenia Space is co-prime for the United Arab Emirates' high-resolution optical observation system, Falcon-Eye (2 satellites), and will supply the two payloads.

Copyrights : artistic views of Cosmo-SkyMed & Earth Observer Optical : Master Image Programmes; photo of the Earth Observation Centre: Patrice Masini

 

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