By Kim Tong-hyung
Staff Reporter

The hit-or-miss weather forecasts are on everyone's list of the most annoying things in everyday life here. But Korea's space agency claims to have a remedy ready when about $314 million state-of-the-art meteorological satellite is launched next month.

The Communication, Ocean and Meteorological Satellite (COMS-1), which will be strapped to a European rocket and blasted into geostationary transfer orbit (GTO) next month, is the first in a series of new Korean satellites to be launched from this year to 2013.

The Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI) said that the wealth of satellite images, data and communications functions provided by the new fleet of craft will have visible effects in science research, industry and the daily lives of people.

This would also help establish the country as a provider of quality space data and contribute to finding a niche in the heated Asian space race.

"The satellites, through their new data, will help the country's nascent space industry provide added-value solutions and allow them to find new markets for their technologies and products overseas," said KARI President Lee Joo-jin.

Currently, the Korean Multipurpose Satellite-2 (KOMPSAT-2), also called the Arirang-2, which was launched in 2006, is the only Korean satellite providing Earth observation images, leaving the country to rely on information provided by satellites from other nations.

However, the KOMPSAT-2 will soon be complemented by the COMS-1 and KOMPSAT-5 (Arirang-5), both scheduled for launching this year, and the KOMPSAT-3 (Arirang-3) and KOMPSAT-3A (Arirang-3A), which are also in the pipeline.

The first out of the gate will be the COMS-1, part of the payload attached to an Ariane-5 rocket that is scheduled to be launched in April from the Guiana Space Center, the European Space Agency's (ESA) spaceport in French Guiana.

The satellite is a multipurpose one designed for meteorological observation and ocean surveillance, while its orbital position will also allow it to be used for communications purposes.

Currently, the country has been relying on information provided by Japanese satellites, which are updated every 30 minutes for weather forecasts.

KARI officials say the COMS-1 will reduce this gap to 8 to 10 minutes, which will dramatically improve the accuracy of weather reports, and the satellite could also contribute in disaster management and monitoring.

"As the country's first GTO satellite, the COMS-1, at 36,000 kilometers above the Earth, will work 24 hours a day to provide its observation data and communications functions for the next seven years. The satellite will be critical in improving the accuracy of weather reports and also help the country make better use of its marine resources," Lee said.

The KOMPSAT-5, which is to be launched from Kazakhstan by the end of the year, will be the first Korean satellite to be equipped with synthetic aperture radar (SAR) capability.

The satellite is expected to fulfill the demand for SAR image information, which differs from the optical image data provided by remote sensing satellites.

The combining of SAR and optical image data will allow the satellite to respond to the demands for more sophisticated data in geographic information, remote sensing exploration and also enable a more precise observation of the Earth.

"As a SAR satellite, Arirang-5 can beam image information night and day, regardless of weather conditions. The spacecraft would obviously help stack up our satellite image data that had been lacking compared to other countries due to deficiencies in equipment and infrastructure," said Kim Jin-hee, a KARI official involved in the development of the KOMPSAT-5.

The KOMPSAT-3, which has been under development since 2004 and is slated for launch next year, will be equipped with an optical camera that will provide ground resolution as sharp as 70 centimeters per pixel, a better optical capability than the KOMPSAT-2.

The KOMPSAT-3A, slated for launch in 2013, will be equipped with an infrared sensor system that is designed to obtain images based on changes in temperature.

KARI officials believe Korea's bulked-up lineup of satellites will allow the country to profit more from the satellite images and data it produces. Since it began selling the data provided by KOMPSAT-2 in 2007, KARI has earned about $22 million, but expects to find a larger market in the coming years.

thkim@koreatimes.co.kr