Satellites

Cosmo-SkyMED

COSMO-SkyMed (COnstellation of small Satellites for Mediterranean basin Observation), funded by the Italian Space Agency (ASI) and Italian Ministry of Defense (MoD),  it is “natively” conceived as a Dual-Use (Civilian and Defence) end-to-end Earth Observation System aimed to establish a global service supplying provision of data, products and services compliant with well-established international standards and relevant to a wide range of applications, such as Risk Management, Scientific and Commercial Applications and Defence/Intelligence Applications.
The system consists of a constellation of 4 medium-size satellites, each one equipped with a microwave high-resolution synthetic aperture radar (SAR) operating in X-band, having ~600 km single side access ground area, orbiting in a sun-synchronous orbit at ~620km height over the Earth surface, with the capability to change attitude in order to acquire images at both right and left side of the satellite ground track (nominal acquisition is right looking mode).COSMO SKY MED data are exploited by EVOSS  for monitoring of  deformations of the volcano edifice.

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TERRA and AQUA

MODIS (or Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) is a key instrument aboard the Terra (EOS AM) and Aqua (NASA) satellites. Terra's orbit around the Earth is timed so that it passes from north to south across the equator in the morning, while Aqua passes south to north over the equator in the afternoon. Terra MODIS and Aqua MODIS are viewing the entire Earth's surface every 1 to 2 days, acquiring data in 36 spectral bands, or groups of wavelengths.
MODIS data are used by EVOSS to detect thermal anomalies due to the activity of volcanoes.

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ENVISAT

Launched in 2002, Envisat (European Space Agency) is the largest Earth Observation spacecraft ever built. It carries ten sophisticated optical and radar instruments to provide continuous observation and monitoring of the Earth's land, atmosphere, oceans and ice caps.
EVOSS exploits the data of two ENVISAT instruments:
-ASAR: the Advanced Synthetic Aperture Radar (operating at C-band), for monitoring deformations of the volcano edifice.
-SCHIAMACHY: an imaging spectrometer whose primary mission objective is to perform global measurements of trace gases in the troposphere and in the stratosphere. SCIAMACHY data are used by EVOSS to provide measurements of sulfur dioxide emissions from volcanoes.

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AURA

Aura (EOS CH-1) is a multi-national NASA scientific research satellite, dedicated to the monitoring of the Earth's ozone layer, air quality and climate. Aura flies in formation with the "A Train", a collection of several other satellites (Aqua, CALIPSO, CloudSat and the French PARASOL), in a sun-synchronous orbit.
EVOSS exploits data from the OMI (Ozone Monitoring Instrument) instrument on board AURA for detection of sulfur dioxide produced in volcanic eruptions.

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METOP-A

The prime objective of the EUMETSAT Polar System (EPS) Metop mission series is to provide continuous, long-term data sets in support of operational météorologique and environmental forecasting and global climate monitoring.
The Metop satellites carry on board a set of state-of-the-art sounding and imaging instruments that offer improved remote sensing capabilities to both meteorologists and climatologists.
EVOSS exploits the data of the  following instruments  on board Metop :
1) the Global Ozone Monitoring Experiment–2 (GOME-2) for retrieval of sulphur dioxide emissions  and
2) the Infrared Atmospheric Sounding Interferometer IASI for retrieval of sulphur dioxide and ash emissions from volcanoes.
The Global Ozone Monitoring Experiment–2 (GOME-2) is an optical spectrometer, fed by a scan mirror which enables across-track scanning in nadir, as well as sideways viewing for polar coverage and instrument characterization measurements using the moon.  GOME-2 senses the Earth’s backscattered radiance and extraterrestrial solar irradiance in the ultraviolet and visible part of the spectrum (240 - 790 nm) at a high spectral resolution between 0.2 - 0.4 nm.  4096 spectral points from 4 detector channels are transferred per individual GOME-2 measurement. The footprint size is 80 x 40 km for main channel data.
The concept of IASI is based on the spectral decomposition of thermal heat emission from the earth, performed with a Michelson interferometer. After an inverse digital Fourier transform and radiometric calibration performed on board to control data flow, the calibrated spectra are transmitted to the ground sector.

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