KOMPSAT-2 (Korean Multi-purpose Satellite-2), also known as Arirang-2, is a South Korean multipurpose

Earth observation satellite An Earth observation satellite or Earth remote sensing satellite is a satellite used or designed for Earth observation (EO) from orbit, including spy satellites and similar ones intended for non-military uses such as environmental monitoring, me ...

. It was launched from

Plesetsk Cosmodrome Plesetsk Cosmodrome () is a Russian spaceport located in Mirny, Arkhangelsk Oblast, near the town of Plesetsk, from which it takes its name. Until 2025 and the commissioning of the Andøya Space, Andøya base in Norway, it was the only operati ...

, Russia at 07:45:43

UTC Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) is the primary time standard globally used to regulate clocks and time. It establishes a reference for the current time, forming the basis for civil time and time zones. UTC facilitates international communica ...

(16:05:43 KST) on 28 July 2006. It began to transmit signals at 14:00 UTC (23:00 KST) the same day. Like the earlier

KOMPSAT-1 KOMPSAT-1 (Korean Multi-purpose Satellite-1), also known as Arirang-1, was a satellite created by the Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) and Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI), and launched by a United States launch vehicle on 21 December ...

satellite, it takes its name from the popular Korean folk song

Arirang ''Arirang'' ( ) is a Korean folk song. There are about 3,600 variations of 60 different versions of the song, all of which include a refrain similar to "arirang, arirang, arariyo" (""). It is estimated that the song is more than 600 years old ...

. Its launch was the culmination of a project begun in 1995. KOMPSAT-2 orbits at a height of , circling the

Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to Planetary habitability, harbor life. This is enabled by Earth being an ocean world, the only one in the Solar System sustaining liquid surface water. Almost all ...

14 times per day, and is expected to maintain that orbit for 3 years. It weighs . The satellite carries a Multispectral Camera (MSC) which can distinguish to a 100-cm resolution, allowing the identification of individual vehicles on the ground. The satellite was succeeded by

KOMPSAT-3 KOMPSAT-3 (Korean Multi-purpose Satellite-3), also known as Arirang-3, is a South Korean multipurpose Earth observation satellite. It was launched from Tanegashima Space Center, Japan at 16:39 UTC on 17 May 2012. Like the earlier KOMPSAT-1 an ...

KOMPSAT-5 KOMPSAT-5 (Korean Multi-purpose Satellite-5), also known as Arirang-5, is a South Korean observation satellite launched by Korea Aerospace Research Institute on August 22, 2013. It is a low-orbit satellite with an operational orbit of 550 km. D ...

and

KOMPSAT-3A KOMPSAT-3A (Korean Multi-purpose Satellite-3A), also known as Arirang-3A, is a South Korean Earth observation satellite equipped with a 55cm-resolution electro-optical camera and an infrared sensor developed by the Korea Aerospace Research Insti ...

, which were launched in 2012, 2013 and 2015 respectively.

History

South Korea started the KOMPSAT programme in 1995 to nurture its national Earth-imaging industry and supply services for remote-sensing applications. The South Korean KOMPSAT-2 Earth-imaging satellite was developed by

Korea Aerospace Industries Korea Aerospace Industries, Ltd. (KAI; ) is a South Korean aerospace and defense manufacturer. It was originally established as a joint venture of Daewoo Heavy Industries' aerospace division, Samsung Aerospace, and Hyundai Space and Aircraft ...

(KAI) and

Korea Aerospace Research Institute The Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI; ), established in 1989, is the aeronautics and space agency of South Korea. Its main laboratories are located in Daejeon, in the Daedeok Science Town. KARI's vision is to continue building upon in ...

(KARI), in partnership with

EADS Astrium Astrium was a European aerospace company and subsidiary of the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company (EADS), headquartered in Paris. It designed, developed and manufactured civil and military space systems and provided related services ...

, to assure continuity with the KOMPSAT-1 satellite launched in 1999. KOMPSAT-2 was orbited on 28 July 2006 by a launch vehicle from Plesetsk, Russia.

Spot Image Spot Image, a public limited company created in 1982 by the French Space Agency, Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales (CNES), the IGN, and Space Manufacturers (Matra, Alcatel, SSC, etc.) is a subsidiary of Airbus Defence and Space (99%). The comp ...

was the distributor of KOMPSAT-2 imagery until April 2011. SI Imaging Services is the worldwide exclusive distributor of KOMPSAT imagery including KOMPSAT-2 since November 2012.

Technologies

Orbit

KOMPSAT-2 operates in a near-polar, circular

Sun-synchronous orbit A Sun-synchronous orbit (SSO), also called a heliosynchronous orbit, is a nearly polar orbit around a planet, in which the satellite passes over any given point of the planet's surface at the same local mean solar time. More technically, it is ...

. The orbital parameters are: * Mean altitude: 685 km * Mass: 800 kg * Inclination: 98.1° (Sun-synchronous orbit) * Orbital period: 98.6 minutes * Orbital cycle: 28 days

Instruments

KOMPSAT-2's instruments are designed to acquire high- and very-high-resolution imagery with a footprint of 15 km. The satellite has the capacity to acquire 20 minutes of imagery on each orbit and it can steer its sensors both ways out to 30° off track. Panchromatic and multispectral images can be acquired at the same time. KOMPSAT-2 radiometer features:

Ground receiving stations

Two receiving stations deliver KOMPSAT-2 imagery 1 to 3 days after acquisition and in under 24 hours in Europe. The Deajeon station in

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the southern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders North Korea along the Korean Demilitarized Zone, with the Yellow Sea to the west and t ...

is responsible for tasking the satellite. The

Toulouse Toulouse (, ; ; ) is a city in southern France, the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Haute-Garonne department and of the Occitania (administrative region), Occitania region. The city is on the banks of the Garonne, River Garonne, from ...

station in France is responsible for updating the catalogue, producing imagery and delivering it to its customers.

Advantages and applications of KOMPSAT-2 imagery

KOMPSAT-2 is designed for very-high-resolution (VHR) remote-sensing applications, such as: * Land planning: to detect and identify features smaller than 1 square meter, e.g. vehicles, street furnishings, roads and bushes * Agriculture: to pinpoint crop or tree diseases * Urban planning and demographics: to locate detached houses * Civil engineering: to plan road, railroad and oil pipeline corridors * Defence: to describe high-value assets or military sites

North Korea

It serves along with the existing Kompsat-2 to provide continuous satellite observation of the

Korean Peninsula Korea is a peninsular region in East Asia consisting of the Korean Peninsula, Jeju Island, and smaller islands. Since the end of World War II in 1945, it has been politically divided at or near the 38th parallel between North Korea (Dem ...

, sending images twice a day at 1:30 and 13:30.

Mission

In October 2015, the

Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning The Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning (MSIP, ) was a ministry of the Government of South Korea. Its purpose is to set, manage, and evaluate science and technology policy, support scientific research and development, develop human resou ...

(MSIP) and

KARI Kari or KARI may refer to: Places *Kari, Jhunjhunu, a village in Rajasthan, India * , a village in Mouhoun Province, Burkina Faso * Kari, Tikamgarh, a town in Madhya Pradesh, India * Kari, Iran, a village in Bushehr Province, Iran * Kari-ye Bozorg ...

made plans about the future of the KOMPSAT-2 mission which is on orbit for more than 9 years. It was decided not to extend the KOMPSAT-2 mission any further for systematic observation services, but instead use it for research purposes until the end of its life cycle. Although KOMPSAT-2 was originally designed to have a life cycle of 3 years, this was extended three times (by two years each time, for a total of 6 years) by applying highly reliable satellite technology. KOMPSAT-2 has successfully carried out its mission of obtaining images of the Korean Peninsula and other major areas of the world over a period of nine years. KOMPSAT-2 is used in next-generation satellite technology research without any further extension of its mission until the end of its life cycle, as its operation systems - such as its payload module, sensor, and Earth station operation system (command transmission and satellite condition analysis) - are aged.

References

External links

Reuters report

KARI

SI Imaging Services

Satrec Initiative

Spot Image
{{Orbital launches in 2006 Satellites orbiting Earth Satellites of South Korea Korea Aerospace Industries spacecraft Spacecraft launched in 2006 Spacecraft launched by Rokot rockets Korea Aerospace Research Institute