Earth Observation & Science
SSTL's High Performance Earth Observation Capability
We design and build space systems from beginning to end and can offer a flexible mix of products and services to suit your mission requirements.
We offer high resolution systems for high performance 7+ year missions combining 1 metre class imaging with high agility and accurate geolocation.
Multi satellite constellations
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Two or more co-ordinated satelllites provide better revisit times than single satellite systems.
►Comprehensive capability can be achieved by combining satellites with different sensors.
►Constellations increase operational utility and reduce operational risk.
SSTL 300 S1
Agile, sub-1 metre imaging system
The SSTL 300 S1 is the latest in the family of highly capable SSTL 300 platforms, providing sub-metre imagery with all the existing mission performance of the platform, and retaining its heritage.
Ideal for a wide range of commercial, civil and security applications, the agile SSTL 300 S1 Earth imaging system offers 0.75m GSD imagery with high speed downlink and 45 degree fast slew off-pointing.
The SSTL 300-S1 platform will fly on the DMC3 mission.
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| SSTL 300 S1 specification |
Applications |
| Mission and System |
► Surveillance
► Security
► Multi-angle measurements
► National and urban mapping
► Agricultural monitoring
► Precision farming
► Orthographic mapping
Download SSTL 300 S1 datasheet
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| Reference Orbit |
500km, SSO, 10.30am LTAN |
| Design Lifetime |
7 years |
| Space Segment |
| Mass |
350kg |
| GSD |
PAN: 0.75m M/S: 3m |
| Swath |
17km |
| SNR |
All bands > 100:1 |
| MTF at Nyquist |
10% |
| Digitisation |
10 bits |
| Compression |
JPEG-LS configurable |
| Data Products |
Radiometrically and geometrically corrected images
Stereo
Wide area |
| Off-Pointing |
Up to 45 degrees |
| Flexibility |
Fast slew |
| Safety & Security |
Encryption of all command and telemetry
Payload data encryption |
SSTL 300
Agile, very high resolution imaging system
The SSTL 300 is an evolution of SSTL's heritage platform design, used in DMC+4 and TopSat, missions which have achieved over 10 years in-orbit heritage.
Ideal for security applications, the agile SSTL 300 Earth imaging system offers 1 metre class multi-spectral imaging with high speed downlink and 45 degree fast slew off-pointing.
In orbit on NigeriaSat-2, launched 2011.
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| SSTL 300 specification |
Applications |
| Mission and System |
► Surveillance
► Security
► Multi-angle measurements
► National and urban mapping
► Agricultural monitoring
► Precision farming
► Orthographic mapping
Download SSTL 300 datasheet
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| Coverage revisit |
2 days worldwide |
| Design Lifetime |
7 years |
| Space Segment |
| GSD |
PAN: 1m M/S: 2m
Wide area multispectral at 300km swath |
| Swath |
300km |
| Data Products |
Radiometrically and geometrically corrected images
Stereo
Wide area |
| Off-Pointing |
Up to 45 degrees |
| Flexibility |
Fast slew 45 degree off-track pointing, real-time downlink or store and forward |
| Safety & Security |
Encryption of all command and telemetry
Payload data encryption |
| Image throughput |
Greater than 400 images per day |
| Safety & Security |
Encryption of all command and telemetry
Payload data encryption |
NovaSAR-S Synthetic Aperture Radar
Affordable, high performance space-borne Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) systems
NovaSAR-S combines our heritage SSTL-300 series avionics suite with a new structure and an innovative payload, developed in collaboration with EADS Astrium, that can be adapted to different frequency bands.
NovaSAR-S delivers all weather medium resolution Earth observation data night and day at a price similar to traditional optical missions, and significantly lower than any other SAR platform currently on the market, by leveraging highly efficient S-band solid state technology. The platform is sized for a range of low-cost launch options.
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| NovaSAR-S specification |
Applications |
| Imaging frequency band |
S-band (3.1-3.3 GHz) |
► Flood monitoring
► Agricultural crop assessment
► Forest monitoring
► Land use mapping
► Disaster management
► Maritime applications (e.g. ship detection and oil spill monitoring
Download NovaSAR-S brochure
Download NovaSAR-S datasheet
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| Design Lifetime |
7 years |
| Mass |
<400kg |
| Lead time (KO to FRR) |
24 months |
| Antenna |
Microstrip patch phased array (3m x 1m) |
| Imaging polarisations |
Single, dual or tri-polar
(HH, HV, VH, VV) |
| Optimum orbit |
580km
(SSO or low inclination Equatorial orbit) |
| Payload duty cycle |
At least 2 minutes per orbit
(single image >800km long) |
| Typical duty cycle |
>1 million km² per day (mode dependent) |
Earthmapper
"Always on" imaging system
Earthmapper is a global imaging system providing full coverage of the Earth's land area in 5 days. Flown as a constellation of spacecraft, Earthmapper can image the entire global land mass every day.
Earthmapper has a large volume of data storage and power generation capacity with high downlink availability. The spacecraft builds on our heritage design offering advanced capability at low risk.
Ideal for rapid revisit and high coverage applications, Earthmapper offers greater opportunities to capture cloud free images.
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| Earthmapper specification |
Applications |
| Mission and System |
► Mapping
► Agricultural monitoring
► Flood monitoring
► Water quality
► Disaster management
► National and urban mapping
Download Earthmapper datasheet
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| Reference orbit |
686km, SSO, 10.30am LTAN |
| Spectral bands |
Red, Green, Near Infrared |
| Design Lifetime |
5 years |
| Satellite |
| Mass |
100kg |
| GSD |
22m |
| Swath |
600km |
| SNR |
All bands > 100:1 |
| Compression ratio |
2:5:1 lossless (variable) |
| Digitisation |
8 - 14 bits |
| Data storage |
144 Gbytes |
| Downlink |
80 - 160 Mbits/s depending on ground station |
| Data Products |
Radiometrically and geometrically corrected images
Stereo
Wide area |
| Image throughput |
61 million km² per day |
SSTL 100 v3.0
Enhanced true colour imaging
A new imaging system, based on the next generation SSTL 100 platform, with more spectral bands and a wide imaging swath, giving much improved imagery in both quality and quantity for a variety of applications.
The addition of SWIR and blue spectral bands provides true colour imaging with increased information density, broadening the range of applications.
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| SSTL 100 v3.0 specification |
Applications |
| Mission and System |
► Mapping
► Agricultural monitoring
► Flood monitoring
► Water quality
► Disaster management
► National and urban mapping
►Geological mapping
►Vegetation mapping
►High accuracy land cover assessments
Download SSTL 100 v3.0 datasheet
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| Reference orbit |
703km, SSO, 10.30am LTAN |
| Spectral bands |
SWIR 1550-1750 nm
Blue 450-515 nm
Green 525-605 nm
Red 630-690 nm
NIR 774-900 nm |
| Design Lifetime |
5 years |
| Satellite |
| Mass |
100kg |
| GSD |
10 - 15m VSNIR
20 - 30m SWIR |
| Swath |
440km |
| SNR |
All bands > 100:1 |
| Data Products |
Radiometrically and geometrically calibrated images |
High Resolution Imagers from SSTL
SSTL VHRI 250 - Very High Resolution Imager
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Always at the forefront of development, the SSTL VHRI 250 is a compact, very high resolution and low power pushbroom imager.
The VHRI 250 provides high resolution imagery in 5 wavebands, using five linear detector arrays separated in the along-track direction in the common focal plane of a telescope.
The SSTL VHRI 250 is imaging on NigeriaSat-2.
Applications
►Rapid monitoring
►Forest inventory
►Disaster monitoring
►Environmental management
►Infrastructure mapping
►Urban growth monitoring
►Crop subsidy verification
►Pipeline monitoring
►Change detection
►Military applications: surveillance, target identification
Download SSTL VHRI 250 datasheet
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CHRIS hyperspectral imager
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The SSTL CHRIS imager is a highly versatile hyperspectral system with more than 9 years inflight heritage, offering in-orbit programmable selection of spectral bands location, bandwidth and ground sampling distance. In orbit since 2001 and provides the highest spatial resolution of any hyperspectral system, attracting a substantial international user community.
The SSTL CHRIS imager is imaging on Proba-1.
Applications
►Rapid monitoring
►Precision farming
►Regional yeild forecasting
►Forest inventory
►Disaster monitoring
►Environmental management
►Vegetation classification
►Air quality assessments
►Water quality
►Seabed classification
►Military applications: surveillance, target identification
Download SSTL CHRIS datasheet
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Download Comparative Resolutions datasheet