Finnish company , which creates a constellation of satellites for conducting radar surveys of the Earth's surface, said that it was able to achieve photographic resolution with a detail accuracy of less than 1 meter. Since its founding in 2015, ICEYE has raised about $65 million in investment, expanded to 120 employees, and most recently launched three refrigerator-sized satellites into low Earth orbit, according to ICEYE co-founder and director of development strategy Pekka Laurila.
During the first three years, ICEYE focused on technology development, and the company's first full-fledged launch took place only in January 2018 using an Indian launch vehicle. Since then, ICEYE has launched two more satellites and plans to add two more by the end of this year. βWe are starting to fulfill commercial orders, and our volume of services is rapidly increasing,β Laurila said in an interview with Ars Technica.
Unlike the optical instruments used by most of the existing earth imagery satellites, ICEYE uses . ICEYE satellites use the movement of the radar antenna during the time the device is moving over the target to create multi-dimensional images of the surface, ignoring weather conditions and time of day. By moving its small antenna at a great distance relative to the subject, the satellite receives a higher resolution image, comparable to more powerful and heavier radio equipment.
Laurila described how, using one of the company's satellites, in early 2019, the company was able to monitor the destruction of the Brumadinho dam in southeastern Brazil, which killed 248 people. Despite the often cloudy skies over Brazil, the ICEYE satellite could easily track the paths of the mudflows caused by the dam failure.
For the new demonstration photos, the company has taken observations of offshore oil loading terminals to show off its new high-definition imaging capabilities. Targeting seaports in Nigeria, Australia and other countries, the company was able to acquire and process images with a resolution of up to 0,55m, which allowed them to see in detail the oil storage facilities, the process of loading raw materials onto tankers and all the ships in the ports.
The company originally planned to focus on monitoring ice in the Arctic for shipping and scientific purposes, hence the name ICEYE (ice = ice, eye = eye), but has since found demand for its services in a wide variety of applications. : from the oil and gas industry to informing people about emergencies such as the collapse of the Brumadinho dam. The company will be able to accomplish even more interesting tasks when ICEYE launches the last two of the planned five satellites in early 2020, having assembled the full constellation it needs.
Source: 3dnews.ru