HISEA-1: China's First Miniaturized Commercial C-Band SAR Satellite

The HiSea-1 satellite launched in December 2020 is the first commercial miniaturized C-band SAR satellite in China. It is also the first satellite belonging to the TY- MINISAR constellation which is the first generation of light and small SAR remote sensing satellites being developed by Spacety. It is developed based on advanced SAR technologies such as the C-band lightweight active phased array antenna and integrated satellite electronics design technology. The weight of the satellite is 185kg while the imaging resolution reaches 1 meter. After more than one-year in orbit, the HiSea-1 satellite has acquired enormous SAR imageries under distinctive environments using different acquisition modes of different spatial resolutions. Acquired SAR imageries have been applied to various applications, such as oil spill detection, sea ice monitoring and flood monitoring, demonstrating the great potential of the miniaturized HiSea-1 satellite. This paper presents an overview of the HiSea-1 satellite and its up-to-date status.