Kompsat 5 image of Rome. Photo: KARI

[Via Satellite 12-17-13] South Korea’s Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning has released Kompsat 5 images acquired for the purpose of calibration. During the early operation and calibration phase, all the functionalities of satellite have been verified and now it is under calibration of payload system. The released images were acquired for the verification of payload performance.

The Kompsat 5 CAL/VAL team will complete the calibration of the radar instrument and optimizing the data processing chain by the end of February 2014. After completion of calibration, Kompsat 5 will be operated to provide products for various applications such as security and defense, image interpretation, mapping, land and natural resource management, environmental monitoring, disaster monitoring and more. Commercial data from Kompsat 5 are expected from the second quarter of 2014.

According to Korean Space Development Plan, the Korean Aerospace Research Institute (KARI) will launch Kompsat 3A equipped with VHR optical and medium resolution IR sensor in 2014 and Kompsat 6 equipped with VHR SAR in 2019, in addition to existing VHR optical and SAR systems such as Kompsat 2, Kompsat 3 and Kompsat 5.

Kompsat 5 is the first Korean radar satellite developed by KARI through the collaboration with Thales Alenia Space in Italy. KARI is responsible for the operation and public use of the Kompsat 5 data, and Satrec Initiative is in charge of commercial marketing of Kompsat constellation, a unique combination of VHR optical data and SAR data, including Kompsat 2, Kompsat 3 and Kompsat 5.