UAE Earmarks $820M To Build ‘Highly Accurate’ Radar Satellite Network
The United Arab Emirates Space Agency announced on Sunday that a 3-billion-UAE dirham ($820 million) fund was established to build “a network of highly accurate radar satellites” with advanced imaging capabilities to improve forecasting and monitor climate change and to support the country’s space programs. The constellation of synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellites can create highly detailed radar images of land use, ice cover, and surface changes, with a wide range of scientific and commercial applications.
“SAR technology leapfrogs traditional imaging satellites, providing more powerful imaging using X-band radar technologies, allowing us to continue observations day and night, through fog and cloud cover as well as combining observations to create big data pictures simply not possible through conventional imaging,” said Sarah Al Amiri, minister of state for public education and advanced technology and chairwoman of the UAE Space Agency. “These small-scale satellites are more agile, faster to develop and more powerful – an indicator of the types of new generation systems that technology is now making possible,” she added.
A satellite development program has been mapped out for the coming six years, with the first satellite to be launched in three years, the UAE Space Agency said in a statement.
“The establishment of a dedicated fund to support the UAE’s burgeoning space program and the launch of a new initiative to develop radar satellites are expected to expand our growing capabilities in this vital sector while accelerating innovation in environmental sustainability,” UAE President Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan tweeted. “The new project aims to develop the UAE’s competitive edge in the space sector and preserve the environment from climate change,” he added.
The satellites, named “Sirb” (Arabic for a flock of birds), will send data and imagery “with an accuracy of one meter by day and night,” tweeted Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, UAE’s vice president, prime minister, defense minister, and ruler of Dubai.
They will be built through a number of partnerships between the Emirati public and private sectors and international companies.
