KOMPSAT-5

KOMPSAT-5, also called Arirang-5 and formally the Korean Multi-purpose Satellite 5, is a South Korean Earth observation satellite operated by the Korea Aerospace Research Institute. It was designed as the first Korean radar satellite, built with the people and facilities that had developed KOMPSAT-3, and its development ran from the middle of 2005. Unlike the optical KOMPSAT-1, -2 and -3, it carries an X-band synthetic aperture radar instrument called COSI, the COrea SAR Instrument, which lets it observe the Korean peninsula in all weather and at any hour. The primary mission offers 1 meter high resolution images, 3 meter standard images and 20 meter wide swath images. A secondary payload called AOPOD combines a dual frequency GPS receiver and a laser retroreflector array to produce atmospheric sounding profiles and support radio occultation science. The spacecraft weighs about 1400 kg, was planned for a five year mission in a dawn-dusk orbit at roughly 550 km altitude, and was launched on 22 August 2013 on a Dnepr rocket from the Yasniy site in Russia.