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Spoke 3 activities overview
Spoke 3 - Future imaging systems for microwave and optical remote sensing
Spoke 3 focuses on advancing next-generation sensor technologies for space-based Earth observation.
Present-generation imaging systems, such as those supporting the Copernicus Emergency Management Service, provide an important contribution to disaster response and climate monitoring. However, they still rely on conventional, largely monolithic satellite and sensor architectures, which limit flexibility and mission-level adaptability. As a result, system performance is often constrained by trade-offs between resolution, spatial, and temporal coverage.
Spoke 3 addresses these limitations by exploring innovative sensor concepts organized around four main research areas:
- Distributed Synthetic Aperture Radar. The focus is on the definition of innovative radar sensing concepts based on cooperative multi-satellite architectures. Activities span the full DSAR value chain, investigating new technologies and hardware solutions for antennas, coherent formation-flying techniques for system design, image formation and processing algorithms.
- Sub-millimetre Spectrometers On-chip. The focus is on developing of a compact, on-chip instrument to monitor atmospheric composition and environmental pollutants. Activities involve the definition of science-driven requirements (i.e., key atmospheric species, optimal spectral bands, and suitable observation strategies) and their translation into instrument-level requirements (i.e., spectral resolution, sensitivity, angular resolution, and spectral coverage).
- Digital Radar Technologies. The focus is on payload digitalization processes to gain flexibility and agility at payload level. The purpose is to optimize on-board resource management, enhance processing capabilities, and introduce functionalities that allow the radar to adapt to dynamic and challenging observation scenarios.
- High-performance optical imaging enabled by CubeSat platforms. The focus is on key technologies and methods that enable advanced optical imaging through combination of advanced payload design, novel optical systems, such as free-form optics, and learning methods for image quality enhancements.
Benefiting from the space technology trend line towards miniaturization and multi-satellite missions, Spoke 3 aims to enhance system performance while improving flexibility, robustness, and overall mission resilience.
Research activities Details
Publications
2025
Journal publications:
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Conference publications:
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2025
Journal publications:
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Conference publications:
- eee
Spoke 3 - Future imaging systems for microwave and optical remote sensing
Spoke 3 focuses on advancing next-generation sensor technologies for space-based Earth observation.
Present-generation imaging systems, such as those supporting the Copernicus Emergency Management Service, provide an important contribution to disaster response and climate monitoring. However, they still rely on conventional, largely monolithic satellite and sensor architectures, which limit flexibility and mission-level adaptability. As a result, system performance is often constrained by trade-offs between resolution, spatial and temporal coverage.
Spoke 3 addresses these limitations by exploring innovative sensor concepts organized around four main research areas:
- Distributed Synthetic Aperture Radar. The focus is on the definition of innovative radar sensing concepts based on cooperative multi-satellite architectures. Activities span the full DSAR value chain, investigating new technologies and hardware solutions for antennas, coherent formation-flying techniques for system design, image formation and processing algorithms.
- Sub-millimetre Spectrometers On-chip. The focus is on developing a compact, on-chip instrument to monitor atmospheric composition and environmental pollutants. Activities involve defining science-driven requirements (e.g., key atmospheric species, optimal spectral bands, and suitable observation strategies) and translating them into instrument-level requirements (e.g., spectral resolution, sensitivity, angular resolution, and spectral coverage).
- Digital Radar Technologies. The focus is on payload digitalization processes to gain flexibility and agility at payload level. The purpose is to optimize on-board resource management, enhance processing capabilities, and introduce functionalities that allow the radar to adapt to dynamic and challenging observation scenarios.
- High-performance optical imaging enabled by CubeSat platforms. The focus is on key technologies and methods that enable advanced optical imaging through combination of advanced payload design, novel optical systems, such as free-form optics, and learning methods for image quality enhancements.
Benefiting from the space technology trend line towards miniaturization and multi-satellite missions, Spoke 3 aims to enhance system performance while improving flexibility, robustness, and overall mission resilience.