Deimos-2, the first Spanish Very High Resolution Earth Observation satellite, celebrates its first anniversary
In the last year, this 100% Spanish satellite - which is a pioneering craft in its field - has orbited the Earth 5,300 times and recorded more than 18,000 images
Deimos-2 has started taking part in a number of major international projects and services, such as becoming Copernicus contributing mission and starting a fully coverage of Europe. The satellite has also captured images of recent events such as the Ebro river flooding near Zaragoza in Spain, the eruption of the volcano Calbuco in Chile and the Oleg Naydenov ship oil spill in the Atlantic Ocean
Deimos-2 satellite, recorded images of the Earth with a resolution up to 30 times higher than that of its predecessor Deimos-1
Madrid, 19 June 2015.- Deimos-2, the first Spanish Very High Resolution Earth Observation satellite and the first 100%-privately funded European satellite, celebrates the first anniversary of its 2014 launch on Friday, 19 June.
The satellite, which is owned by Elecnor and operated by its technological division Elecnor Deimos, has travelled around the Earth approximately 5,300 times during this year. This represents a cumulative journey of over 230 million kilometers, which is more than 560 times the distance between the Earth and the Moon and almost 1,5 times the distance between the Earth and the Sun.
During that time, the satellite has recorded more than 18,000 images, covering an area of 3.2 million km2. These very high-resolution images are particularly suitable for obtaining territorial information that is applied in a variety of different fields of activity: agriculture, the environment, climate change, safety, deforestation, management of water resources and supporting the management of crises arising from natural disasters.
Deimos-2 very high resolution services
The range of services currently offered by the Deimos-2 satellite are completed by those provided by Deimos-1 and can be grouped in three main areas: Agriculture, Forestry and Emergencies Services.
Key Projects
Deimos-2’s advanced capabilities have resulted in its participation in a number of major international projects and services. Currently, the satellite is part of the EU and ESA’s (European Space Agency) Copernicus Emergency Management Services, covering emergency responses. Deimos-2 is also a key player in the CORE datasets of the Copernicus Data Warehouse, managed by ESA, carrying out a complete submetric mapping of Europe.
The recent events that have been followed via the images provided by Deimos-2 include:
- Ebro river flooding (from end of February to early March 2015)
- Calbuco volcano eruption, Chile (April 2015)
- Oleg Naydenov ship oil spill, Atlantic Ocean (April 2015)
- Potentially damaged area after cyclone Pam in Port Vila, Vanuatu (March 2015)
- Succesfully depicting the IXV Campaign (February 2015)