4C looking for partners on GulfSAR project

The first satellite is due for launch in early 2013, but as Professor Riccardo Maggiora, chief technology officer for 4C SatImage says, the company is still willing to talk to anyone who would like to discuss strategic opportunities in the MENA region.  

GulfSAR is a high-resolution active satellite that can see through clouds or work day or night thanks to its ground-reflecting radar.  

Its low inclination angle means it will be ideally placed to cover the Middle East, covering a maximum latitude of plus and minus 43 degrees.  

“Nearly all low earth orbit (LEO) satellites, like Cosmos-SkyMed are in polar, sun-synchronous orbits, which means that they only pass over the region around, say, 6am and 6pm,” says Maggiora.  

“GulfSAR will be overhead in the region up to 25 times a day, but the passes will be distributed more evenly over that time period.”  

The constellation will eventually consist of four satellites with two being launched in 2013 and the others the following year. The constellation will mean that an area can be revisited between in between one and four hours.  

With a weight of around 1750kg its X-band radar will give up to one metre resolution and be able to download more than 400 images per day. Innovative multi-colour analysis will combine red, green and blue images taken on subsequent days. Anything that has moved in that time, such as shipping, oil slicks or water will then appear as a brightly-coloured object on the processed image.

“We are in the fundraising stage at the moment,” says Maggiora. “We are looking for a partner for the first spacecraft, which will cost around €240m.”

Images will be downloaded to any suitable ground station, but the new 4C Gulf Earth Observation Centre (GEOC) in Abu Dhabi, which was announced earlier this year, will be the local downlink point. The 4C GEOC is being developed in a collaborative venture between US-based 4C Controls and Abu Dhabi-based Hydra Trading and will eventually cover a surface area of approximately 10,000 square metres.

Maggiora says that they have completed the fabrication of the antenna structure in Italy and the ground station building is under construction.