The overall objective of ICEYE project is to provide fast-update images of ice status of the Arctic zone. This is made possible by satellites equipped with SAR sensors associated with a web application.
Companies involved in Artic operations have a common need for fast-update ice surveillance imagery to provide quick response to the risks posed by moving ice fields for vessels moving at several knots. Moreover, with new mining operations opening
up in the Arctic, especially in the Baffin Bay area, regular ice remote sensing services are required, as mining operators have constant, round-the-clock ore shipping.
Meanwhile, with existing systems, radar imagery is at best only available twice per day. And with their limited capacity, tasking often needs to be pre-programmed multiple days in advance, especially for commercial customers (i.e. not governmental, scientific or military institutions, which are often priviledged).
ICEYE's unique SAR microsatellite design allows to efficiently operate a large constellation of small satellites. This enables unprecedented access to SAR data, anywhere on the globe, at any time. With the full constellation we aim for an average of 3 hours delay from order to acquisition.
With the high amount of satellites in the constellation, ICEYE can provide imagery with very short lead times. It provides frequent revisits, rapid mosaicing of larger areas with high resolution and co-operation with other satellite operators and data providers to provide complementary data layers.
The ICEYE technology is scalable in its functionality and offers numerous applications in nearby markets that will provide terrain for future growth opportunities. The SAR instrument in a similar constellation setup can be used for any circumstance requiring fast response times, such as forest fires, floods, oil spill monitoring, search-and-rescue ops, traffic monitoring. The radar instrument can also be used more widely in applications for mapping, weather and surveillance. The distributed microsatellite sensor network approach can be used in other fast-response time measurements with different instrumentation, including: optical imaging (mapping, surveillance, weather imagery), spectral imaging (agricultural monitoring, pollution monitoring, resource reserves), communication (non-real time cheap messaging for remote areas), scientific purposes (radiation monitoring).
