The Italian Space Agency is managing a program, named COSMO-SkyMed, representing the focal point of Italian strategy on Earth observation; the system will provide commercially viable high quality products to satisfy the need of Mediterranean basin and other users. The system configuration proposed consists in a constellation of "small-satellites" equipped with both optical and radar sensors. The space segment envisages three "optical" satellites equipped with high, medium and coarse resolution optical sensors, plus four "SAR" satellites equipped with an high resolution Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR). The configuration is studied to optimise the coverage and the revisit frequency of the Mediterranean Basin which is the area of primary interest. This paper describes the current status of the system architecture, the main project features and the on going activities.
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