KOMPSAT-6 Mission, Operation Concept, and System Design

KOMPSAT-6 is the second SAR satellite in Korea as a follow-on from KOMPSAT-5 that has been operating in orbit since 2013. The mission objective of KOMPSAT-6 system is the expedite provision of the space-borne SAR (Synthetic Aperture Radar) images with high resolution required for the national demand in GIS (Geographical Information Systems), Ocean & Land management, Disaster monitoring, and Environment monitoring. The KOMPSAT-6 satellite system is a single KOMPSAT-6 satellite flying in a repeat ground track frozen dawn-dusk orbit with 11 days repeat ground track period at mean altitude of 505 km. The KOMPSAT-6 satellite will be delivered to low Earth orbit for all-weather day-night monitoring of Korean peninsula in 2020. This paper provides the overviews of KOMPSAT-6 mission, operation concept, and system design.