EarthCARE (Earth Cloud Aerosol and Radiation Explorer) is a joint mission of ESA and JAXA. The main goal of the mission is the observation and characterization of clouds and aerosols as well as measuring the reflected solar radiation and the infrared radiation emitted from Earth's surface and atmosphere.
Sun-Synchronous OrbitThe Kondor-FKA is a small civilian radar Earth observation satellite designed by NPO Mashinostroyeniya as a civilian counterpart to the Kondor-E satellite. The Kondor satellite features a S-band synthetic aperture radar (SAR), which can conduct both continous swath surweys or detailed spot surveys. The swath width is 10 km. Ground resolution is 1 to 2 m in spotlight mode, 1 to 3 m in stripmap mode and 5 to 30 m in ScanSAR mode.
Sun-Synchronous OrbitThe Space Variable Objects Monitor (SVOM) is a French/Chinese planned small X-ray telescope satellite under development by China National Space Administration (CNSA) and the Centre National d'Études Spatiales (CNES). SVOM will study the explosions of massive stars by analysing the resulting gamma-ray bursts. The lightweight X-ray mirror for SVOM weighs just 1 kg (2.2 lb). SVOM will add new capabilities to the work of finding gamma-ray bursts currently being done by the multinational satellite Swift. Its anti-solar pointing strategy makes the Earth cross the field of view of its payload every orbit.
Low Earth Orbit