Arctic Weather Satellite, A Microsatellite Constellation for Improved Weather Forecasting in Arctic and Globally

A consortium led by OHB Sweden has started the implementation of a prototype satellite for a possible constellation mission called Arctic Weather Satellite (AWS). This constellation of small satellites in low polar orbits would provide frequent coverage of the polar regions to support improved nowcasting and Numerical Weather Prediction (NWP) of the Arctic and Antarctic regions. The AWS mission is designed to be complementary to the existing polar-orbiting, meteorological satellites (e.g. MetOp and MetOp Second Generation (SG)), providing additional atmospheric sounding information to improve NWP on a global scale. The 120 kg AWS prototype satellite will fly in a ~600km sun-synchronous orbit and is based on OHB Sweden’s InnoSat platform. The payload is across-track scanning, passive microwave radiometer from Omnisys Instruments with 4 frequency bands to provide atmospheric sounding information complementary to the microwave radiometers on MetOp-SG. Global data will be stored onboard the satellite for data dumps over specific regions as well as broadcasted worldwide in real time. The ground segment contains a highly innovative Digital Beam Forming Network (DBFN) ground station from Thales allowing tracking of multiple satellites simultaneously. The final constellation is foreseen to provide data with less than 30-minute latency over the entire Arctic region

A Small Satellite Constellation for Monitoring of the Aurora

As part of the European Space Agency\u27s D3S (Distributed Space Weather Sensor System), a small satellite constellation is currently being designed by OHB Sweden which will observe space weather impacts in Earth\u27s vicinity by monitoring of the auroral oval. The primary objective of the Aurora mission is to observe the Aurora Borealis and Australis continuously and as complete as possible. The auroral emissions are the result of interactions of the Solar Wind and Coronal Mass Ejections with the Earth which drive the location and strength of electron precipitation on the ionosphere. Such observations will thereby allow the identification, characterization and nowcasting of geomagnetic storms and sub-storms. Observation of the auroral emissions is expected to enable improved and new services relevant for critical infrastructures such as communication, satellite navigation, satellite operation, aviation, transport, power network operation, and resource utilization. The core instruments of the Aurora mission are the optical and far UV wide-field imagers. Furthermore, a radiation monitor and a magnetometer are baselined as a secondary payload to monitor magnetic field dynamics and the radiation environment. The availability of additional resources for other payloads relevant for D3S is under investigation. To minimize the number of satellites, while ensuring continuous and guaranteed coverage of the auroral oval, a constellation of four satellites in MEO orbit is envisaged. Such orbit however poses significant challenges for small satellites in terms of accessibility, sustainability, and radiation dose. The heritage microsatellite platform from OHB Sweden, InnoSat (designed for LEO), will thus undergo several upgrades in terms of maneuverability, shielding, communication, and reliability. Of particular importance is the low latency requirement which may favor an Inter-Satellite Link. In a first step ESA is implementing a demonstrator mission that shall be launched in 2027 with the aim of optimizing the performance and preparing the operational satellite constellation considered for implementation in a second step. We will report about the status of the satellite design and the mission architecture

EIS: A Unique Hyperspectral Pathfinder Mission Combining the Compact ELOIS Instrument and the InnoSat Smallsat Platform

The EIS mission is a new IOD/IOV mission under the “Horizon 2020” program of the European Union. It combines the innovative ELOIS hyperspectral instrument with the flight-proven InnoSat platform to form a hyperspectral imaging mission offering excellent value for money. OHB Sweden is responsible for the platform, payload integration, system level AIT and for the ground segment incl. operations, while AMOS is delivering the instrument and will validate the data. The target orbit is a LEO SSO orbit at 630 km and the lifetime is 5 years. The platform is enhanced with very high pointing performance and stability and an X-band link for the high data-rate required by the payload. ELOIS is a state-of-the-art instrument featuring several innovative optical, mechanical, and electrical designs. The instrument provides very high radiometric and SNR performances over a broad VIS-SWIR spectral range and within a very low SWaP. This makes it an excellent instrument for affordable cutting-edge smallsat imaging constellations. The mission will be controlled from the OHB Sweden Mission Control Center in Kista, Sweden. The combination of the InnoSat platform and the ELOIS instrument will be a powerful demonstrator for future hyperspectral missions addressing a wide range of applications