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Cubesats for Scientific and Civil-Use Studies of the Earth

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A special issue of Remote Sensing (ISSN 2072-4292). This special issue belongs to the section "Engineering Remote Sensing".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 March 2022) | Viewed by 18554

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Special Issue Editor

Dr. Dee W. Pack

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Guest Editor

The Aerospace Corporation
Interests: weather and natural disaster remote sensing; calibration of space-based sensors; remote sensing of nighttime lights; remote sensing of fire and natural gas flare activity; hyperspectral imaging

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

It is our great pleasure to organize a Special Issue on the topic of "CubeSats for Scientific and Civil-Use Studies of the Earth". Advances in compact satellite technologies have allowed more types of remote sensing and Earth science missions to be addressed in smaller satellites. This Special Issue will report on new results, advances, and directions for the application of CubeSats to Earth remote sensing.

Topics include, but are not limited to the following:

Weather
Environmental monitoring
Natural disaster characterization and response
Atmospheric science
Electrooptical remote sensing
Passive microwave remote sensing
Radar remote sensing
GPS occultation
Compact sensors, deployable payloads, and high bandwidth communications solutions for remote sensing systems and other enabling technologies
Niche missions for CubeSats
Missions enabled by CubeSat constellations

Dr. Dee W. Pack
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Remote Sensing is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

CubeSat
Remote sensing
Microwave radiometry
Atmospheric sounding
Compact sensors
Environmental monitoring

Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

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25 pages, 2902 KiB

Open AccessArticle

INSPIRE-SAT 7, a Second CubeSat to Measure the Earth’s Energy Budget and to Probe the Ionosphere

by Mustapha Meftah, Fabrice Boust, Philippe Keckhut, Alain Sarkissian, Thomas Boutéraon, Slimane Bekki, Luc Damé, Patrick Galopeau, Alain Hauchecorne, Christophe Dufour, Adrien Finance, André-Jean Vieau, Emmanuel Bertran, Pierre Gilbert, Nicolas Caignard, Clément Dias, Jean-Luc Engler, Patrick Lacroix, Kévin Grossel, Véronique Rannou, Stéphane Saillant, Yannick Avelino, Benjamin Azoulay, Cyril Brand, Carlos Dominguez, Akos Haasz, Agne Paskeviciute, Kevin Segura, Pierre Maso, Sébastien Ancelin, Christophe Mercier, Valentin Stee, Antoine Mangin, David Bolsée and Catherine Billard Show full author list Hide full author list

Remote Sens. 2022, 14(1), 186; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/rs14010186 - 01 Jan 2022

Cited by 10 | Viewed by 5472

Abstract

INSPIRE-SAT 7 is a French 2-Unit CubeSat (11.5 × 11.5 × 22.7 cm) primarily designed for Earth and Sun observation. INSPIRE-SAT 7 is one of the missions of the International Satellite Program in Research and Education (INSPIRE). Twice the size of a 4 × 4 Rubik’s Cube and weighing about 3 kg, INSPIRE-SAT 7 will be deployed in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) in 2023 to join its sister satellite, UVSQ-SAT. INSPIRE-SAT 7 represents one of the in-orbit demonstrators needed to test how two Earth observation CubeSats in orbit can be utilized to set up a satellite constellation. This new scientific and technological pathfinder CubeSat mission (INSPIRE-SAT 7) uses a multitude of miniaturized sensors on all sides of the CubeSat to measure the Earth’s energy budget components at the top-of-the-atmosphere for climate change studies. INSPIRE-SAT 7 contains also a High-Frequency (HF) payload that will receive HF signals from a ground-based HF transmitter to probe the ionosphere for space weather studies. Finally, this CubeSat is equipped with several technological demonstrators (total solar irradiance sensors, UV sensors to measure solar spectral irradiance, a new Light Fidelity (Li-Fi) wireless communication system, a new versatile telecommunication system suitable for CubeSat). After introducing the objectives of the INSPIRE-SAT 7 mission, we present the satellite definition and the mission concept of operations. We also briefly show the observations made by the UVSQ-SAT CubeSat, and assess how two CubeSats in orbit could improve the information content of their Earth’s energy budget measurements. We conclude by reporting on the potential of future missions enabled by CubeSat constellations. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Cubesats for Scientific and Civil-Use Studies of the Earth)

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23 pages, 6382 KiB

Open AccessArticle

A Concept of 2U Spaceborne Multichannel Heterodyne Spectroradiometer for Greenhouse Gases Remote Sensing

by Sergei Zenevich, Iskander Gazizov, Dmitry Churbanov, Yegor Plyashkov, Maxim Spiridonov, Ravil Talipov and Alexander Rodin

Remote Sens. 2021, 13(12), 2235; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/rs13122235 - 08 Jun 2021

Cited by 8 | Viewed by 5108

Abstract

We present the project of a 2U CubeSat format spaceborne multichannel laser heterodyne spectroradiometer (MLHS) for studies of the Earth’s atmosphere upper layers in the near-infrared (NIR) spectral range (1258, 1528, and 1640 nm). A spaceborne MLHS operating in the solar occultation mode onboard CubeSat platform, is capable of simultaneous vertical profiling of CO₂, H₂O, CH₄, and O₂, as well as Doppler wind measurements, in the tangent heights range of 5–50 km. We considered the low Earth orbit for the MLHS deployment and analyzed the expected surface coverage and spatial resolution during one year of operations. A ground-based prototype of the MLHS for CO₂ and CH₄ molecular absorption measurements with an ultra-high spectral resolution of 0.0013 cm⁻¹ is presented along with the detailed description of its analytical characteristics and capabilities. Implementation of a multichannel configuration of the heterodyne receiver (four receivers per one spectral channel) provides a significant improvement of the signal-to-noise ratio with the reasonable exposure time typical for observations in the solar occultation mode. Finally, the capability of building up a tomographic picture of sounded gas concentration distributions provided by high spectral resolution is discussed. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Cubesats for Scientific and Civil-Use Studies of the Earth)

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23 pages, 6288 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Astrape: A System for Mapping Severe Abiotic Forest Disturbances Using High Spatial Resolution Satellite Imagery and Unsupervised Classification

by Sarah A. Wegmueller and Philip A. Townsend

Remote Sens. 2021, 13(9), 1634; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/rs13091634 - 22 Apr 2021

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 2483

Abstract

Severe forest disturbance events are becoming more common due to climate change and many forest managers rely heavily upon airborne surveys to map damage. However, when the damage is extensive, airborne assets are in high demand and it can take managers several weeks to account for the damage, delaying important management actions. While some satellite-based systems exist to help with this process, their spatial resolution or latency can be too large for the needs of managers, as evidenced by the continued use of airborne imaging. Here, we present a new, operational-focused system capable of leveraging high spatial and temporal resolution Sentinel-2 and Planet Dove imagery to support the mapping process. This system, which we have named Astrape (“ah-STRAH-pee”), uses recently developed techniques in image segmentation and machine learning to produce maps of damage in different forest types and regions without requiring ground data, greatly reducing the need for potentially dangerous airborne surveys and ground sampling needed to accurately quantify severe damage. Although some limited field work is required to verify results, similar to current operational systems, Astrape-produced maps achieved 78–86% accuracy with respect to damage severity when evaluated against reference data. We present the Astrape framework and demonstrate its flexibility and potential with four case studies depicting four different disturbance types—fire, hurricane, derecho and tornado—in three disparate regions of the United States. Astrape is capable of leveraging various sources of satellite imagery and offers an efficient, flexible and economical option for mapping severe damage in forests. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Cubesats for Scientific and Civil-Use Studies of the Earth)

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Other

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19 pages, 5486 KiB

Open AccessTechnical Note

First Earth-Imaging CubeSat with Harmonic Diffractive Lens

by Nikolay Ivliev, Viktoria Evdokimova, Vladimir Podlipnov, Maxim Petrov, Sofiya Ganchevskaya, Ivan Tkachenko, Dmitry Abrameshin, Yuri Yuzifovich, Artem Nikonorov, Roman Skidanov, Nikolay Kazanskiy and Victor Soifer

Remote Sens. 2022, 14(9), 2230; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/rs14092230 - 06 May 2022

Cited by 21 | Viewed by 3887

Abstract

Launched in March 2021, the 3U CubeSat nanosatellite was the first ever to use an ultra-lightweight harmonic diffractive lens for Earth remote sensing. We describe the CubeSat platform we used; our 10 mm diameter and 70 mm focal length lens synthesis, design, and manufacturing; a custom 3D-printed camera housing built from a zero-thermal-expansion metal alloy; and the on-Earth image post-processing with a convolutional neural network resulting in images comparable in quality to classical refractive optics used for remote sensing before. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Cubesats for Scientific and Civil-Use Studies of the Earth)

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