[M-SD39] Micro-satellite and its constellation in remote sensing

[MSD39-P04] Myanmar Earth Observation Micro-Satellite Development and its Applications

*Hline Htet Win¹, San Lin Phyo¹, Ye Min Htay¹, Junichi Kurihara¹ (1.Hokkaido Univesity)

Keywords:Microsatellite, Earth observation, Remote sensing, Constellation, High spatial resolution

The improvement of technology leads to cost-effective microsatellite development which can be compared with industrial large satellites. Due to the advantages of short development time and easily accessible technology demonstration, launching of microsatellites increases every year. Since most of the small satellites are launched in Low Earth Orbit (LEO), it needs implementation of constellation satellites to increase temporal resolution and ground coverage for observation in contrast to high-altitude large satellites. The Asian Micro-satellite Consortium (AMC) was formed from 16 universities and space agencies from emerging Asian countries and aims to implement the constellation of microsatellites. The first Myanmar microsatellite, Lokanat-1 is built with collaboration between Myanmar Aerospace Engineering University, Hokkaido University and Tohoku University. Lokanat-1 is the Earth observation satellite at 420 km with 51.6 degree inclination. To conduct Earth observation, four scientific sensors, namely, high precision telescope (HPT), spaceborne multispectral imager (SMI) with two liquid crystal tunable filters (LCFT), wide field camera (WFC) and middle field camera (MFC) are equipped in it. The HPT with 2.2 m ground sample distance (GSD) and four spectral bands such as red, green, blue and near infrared is used to obtain high spatial resolution images which can be applied in a variety of remote sensing areas. The SMI which has 47m GSD is used for monitoring vegetation and water changes. To observe large-scale cloud patterns and distribution, the WFC which has a fish-eye lens is used. The MFC with 35 m GSD and 58×44 km field of view (FOV) assists to calibrate the attitude determination algorithm. Images captured with these high performance cameras can be applied to monitoring and evaluation of staple food crops in main agricultural regions, water resource monitoring, forestry monitoring and disaster management, urban planning in Myanmar. The success of the Lokanat-1 will achieve the major goals of the program that is to promote the social and economic development of Myanmar through the space technology applications.