# SAOCOM-1A
*missions*

## Specifications
- **operator**: conae
- **actual launch**: 2018-10-08
- **planned decommission**: 2026-12-31
- **current status**: operational
- **orbit type**: Sun-synchronous orbit, 620 km altitude, 97.89 deg inclination
- **swath km**: 350
- **revisit days**: 16
- **paired revisit days**: 8
- **tasking supported**: true
- **current geographic priority**: Argentina, SIASGE emergency-management users, and global catalogue acquisitions
- **launch vehicle**: spacex-falcon-9
- **entity type**: mission
- **last verified date**: 2026-06-14
- **verified by**: agency-doc
- **claim status**: agency-sourced
- **provider**: conae
- **attributes**: {"operator":"conae","actual_launch":"2018-10-08","planned_decommission":"2026-12-31","current_status":"operational","orbit_type":"Sun-synchronous orbit, 620 km altitude, 97.89 deg inclination","swath_km":350,"revisit_days":16,"paired_revisit_days":8,"tasking_supported":true,"current_geographic_priority":"Argentina, SIASGE emergency-management users, and global catalogue acquisitions","launch_vehicle":"spacex-falcon-9"}
- **relevance**: in-scope

## Editorial
SAOCOM-1A is the first flight unit of Argentina's SAOCOM programme, operated by CONAE and manufactured by INVAP. It carries SAR-L, an L-band synthetic aperture radar, and flies a sun-synchronous orbit at 620 km altitude with a 16-day repeat cycle, reduced to 8 days when paired with SAOCOM-1B. The L-band radar penetrates cloud cover and vegetation canopy, making it well suited for soil moisture measurement, hydrological monitoring, agricultural crop assessment, deforestation tracking, emergency response, and interferometric surface-deformation mapping. CEOS records the satellite as operational nominal; WMO OSCAR confirms the SAR-L instrument has been active since January 2019. Launch is recorded as 2018-10-07 by CEOS (local date) and 2018-10-08 by WMO OSCAR (UTC). [^ceos-saocom-1a][^wmo-saocom-1a][^invap-saocom-review][^usgs-saocom-insar-2024]

## Compositional position
- SAOCOM-1A --[mission_payloads]--> sar-l (products)
- SAOCOM-1A --[related-topic]--> soil-moisture (topics)
- SAOCOM-1A --[related-topic]--> flooding (topics)
- SAOCOM-1A --[related-topic]--> deforestation (topics)
- SAOCOM-1A --[related-topic]--> land-cover-change (topics)

## Sources
- [ceos-saocom-1a] | CEOS MIM SAOCOM 1A mission summary | https://database.eohandbook.com/database/missionsummary.aspx?missionID=405 | tier=agency-doc | accessed=2026-06-14
- [wmo-saocom-1a] | WMO OSCAR SAOCOM-1A satellite record | https://space.oscar.wmo.int/satellites/view/saocom_1a | tier=agency-doc | accessed=2026-06-14 | published=2026-02-02
- [invap-saocom-review] | INVAP SAOCOM mission review and applications | https://www.invap.com.ar/en/successful-review-of-the-saocom-mission/ | tier=operator-engineering | accessed=2026-06-14
- [usgs-saocom-insar-2024] | USGS SAOCOM-1 L-band InSAR assessment | https://www.usgs.gov/publications/a-global-assessment-saocom-1-l-band-stripmap-data-insar-characterization-volcanic | tier=peer-reviewed | accessed=2026-06-14 | published=2024-07-19

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Source: https://eo-atlas.org/missions/saocom-1a
Maintainer: SpectraWorks B.V. (CC-BY 4.0)