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in print
Dr. Alberto E. Ridner
CONAE
The Comision Nacional de Actividades Espaciales -CONAE- was created in 1992 as the Argentine civilian agency responsible for the development of space activities in Argentina. Since 1994, its actions are governed by the National Space Program, an 11 years strategic plan devoted exclusively to Earth Observation, which is revised and extended every two years. CONAE was welcomed as a member of CEOS at the 13th CEOS Plenary in Stockholm in November, 1999.
Since the main goal of the National Space Program is to produce a positive impact in the country's socio-economic activities by means of the extensive use of information generated by space sensors, the development of CONAE is considered as an investment -as opposite to general expenses- in the national budget.
Within the scope of the National Space Program, CONAE is currently working
towards the launch of its Earth observation satellite, SAC-C, in April
2000. This 475 kg satellite, which will be placed in a sun-synchronous
orbit with a 9-16 days of revisit time, will carry a multispectral camera
(5 channels, 180 m
resolution, 360 km swath) specially designed to support Argentina's
agricultural production, forestry and coastal monitoring, fulfilling the
need for a higher revisit time than the one offered by Landsat, and better
resolution than the NOAA satellites. It will also carry a high sensitivity
panchromatic camera and several experiments from Denmark (DSRI), France
(CNES), Italy (ASI) and USA (NASA).
SAC-C will integrate, together with Landsat 7, EO-1 and Terra of NASA, a single constellation, during the twelve months following its launch. In this configuration, the satellites will pass over the same point during a 30 minutes time window, thus allowing an almost simultaneous observation with several cameras and instruments under the same light and atmospheric conditions.
CONAE has also developed the SAC-A satellite, which was launched by
NASA in December 1998 and operated flawlessly during 1999. It was a technological
mission entirely planned, designed and built in Argentina, including its
solar panel and inertial wheel. It carried a camera with a solid state
recorder, a GPS for orbit and attitude determination and other experiments.
Following Earth Observation missions (2002 to 2004)
include: CESAR, in association with Spain (currently in phase B); SABIA3,
with Brazil; and SAOCOM (two satellites, under construction).
The SAOCOM mission will carry an L band Synthetic Aperture Radar, 10 m resolution, and a high sensitivity optical camera. Together with the Italo-European COSMO-SKYMED constellation, SAOCOM will conform the Sistema Italo Argentino de Satelites para la Gestion de Emergencias (Italian Argentine Satellite System for Emergency Management) of 9 satellites devoted to natural disasters management, with optical and SAR instruments.
CONAE's ground segment, Estacion Terrena Cordoba, is currently receiving
and distributing data from the Landsat 5-7, SPOT 1-2, ERS 1-2, SeaStar
Seawiff and NOAA satellites and also operates CONAE's missions. Its
modern facilities allow to process and deliver the orders to Argentine
customers in less than 24 hs.
In cooperation with DLR, CONAE is developing a Telemedicine program devoted to extend medicine support to peripherical regions or isolated populations, using technology derived from space activities: remote sensing and control, high volume data transfers, communications, etc.
CONAE is member of the Federal Emergency System of Argentina.
CONAE strongly pursues activities in cooperation with other space agencies. Currently, it has active programs with NASA, AEB, ESA, ASI, CNES and DLR.
Disaster Management Support Ad Hoc Working Group
(continued from Page 9.)
management for specific disaster types and phases. The "hot events"
page is a selected list of Internet sites where users can get information
and data for
recent disaster events. A landslide hazard page has recently been developed.