The IEEC takes part in the Atlantic Constellation, a project for Earth observation from space

Recently, an innovative Earth observation programme jointly promoted by Portugal and Spain was officially announced: the Atlantic Constellation, which involves participation from public institutions and private companies. The announcement took place on 16 October at the facilities of the European Space Agency (ESA) in Madrid (ESAC) during the celebration of the agency’s 50th anniversary.

The space technology leader Open Cosmos has been selected by the Spanish Space Agency (AEE) and ESA to lead the development of the Spanish component of this constellation. As part of this role, Open Cosmos will design and build eight advanced microsatellites that will generate critical Earth observation data for key applications, including environmental management, climate resilience, and coastal monitoring. The delivery of these satellites is scheduled for before 2027.

Other companies involved in the Atlantic Constellation include Satlantis, Alén Space, and FOSSA Systems, as well as several research units from the Institute of Space Studies of Catalonia (IEEC — Institut d’Estudis Espacials de Catalunya), which will play a key role in implementing its Spanish component. In particular, research groups from the Institute of Space Sciences (ICE-CSIC), the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya – BarcelonaTech (UPC), and the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) collaborated on the winning proposal.

The programme has a planned operational lifespan of five years, aiming to develop a resilient, accessible, and practical space infrastructure that delivers tangible benefits for society and the planet.

“The upcoming ESA ministerial meeting is crucial for Spain to maintain the progress of its space initiatives. With the signing of ESCA—the Spanish component of the Atlantic Constellation—which has significant potential to contribute to ERS-EO (European Resilience from Space – Earth Observation), we are demonstrating the scope of Spain’s involvement in ESA’s Earth Observation programmes,” said Simonetta Cheli, ESA Director of Earth Observation Programmes, during the ESA’s 50th anniversary celebrations.

Each of the eight microsatellites will be equipped with four onboard instruments for collecting Earth data: high-resolution multispectral optical cameras, providing a detailed view of the planet; GNSS reflectometry sensors, which measure reflections of navigation signals from the Earth’s surface; IoT connectivity (Internet of Things), enabling in situ data collection in remote areas, monitoring various terrestrial aspects, and transmitting this information affordably; and AIS (Automatic Identification System), which allows the tracking of vessels and monitoring of maritime activity beyond visual limitations.

The ICE-CSIC is responsible for one of the four payloads on each satellite: the GNSS reflectometer (GNSS-R), a remote sensing technique that uses satellite signals reflected off the Earth’s surface to gather information.

GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite Systems) comprises constellations that transmit signals for navigation and positioning, such as GPS and Galileo. The GNSS-R sensor captures these signals once they bounce off terrestrial surfaces—oceans, land, lakes, polar ice, etc.—to infer certain properties of those surfaces.

The hardware and firmware of the sensor are provided by Microwave Sensors and Electronics (MWSE) and the UPC, respectively. This payload is based on the Flexible Microwave Payload – 2 (FMPL-2), a hybrid instrument that combines a microwave radiometer and a navigation signal reflectometer, which was previously flown in 2020 on the 3Cat-5/A satellite of the FSSCat mission, developed at the UPC NanoSat Lab. In this way, the consortium leverages the expertise gained from this mission—the first CubeSat-based mission contributing to the Copernicus programme with data on soil moisture, sea ice extent and thickness, as well as sea wind and salinity.

For this project, the UPC is also developing the Level 1 algorithms that will transform the raw data into observables from which geophysical parameters are derived. Adriano Camps, UPC professor and IEEC member, has led this contribution. The antenna, meanwhile, is supplied by Anteral.

In addition, ICE-CSIC also develops the algorithms to extract the geophysical information from the low level data. These algorithms, which will produce surface inundation information, soil moisture, ocean winds and sea ice characteristics, will run operationally in the mission’s ground segment once the satellites are launched into their orbits.

“The Atlantic Constellation, with eight satellites carrying a GNSS-R sensor each, will represent a major contribution to the Earth Observation System. It will provide key variables using L-band microwave observations across the whole planet, with potential impact in weather prediction, agriculture and water resources management, climate studies and emergency response”, said ICE-CSIC and IEEC researcher Estel Cardellach, pioneer in the study and development of the GNSS reflectometry technique.

In addition, the IEEC and the Group on Interactive Coding of Images (GICI) at the UAB supported the Open Cosmos proposal by contributing data compression technology. These are state-of-the-art algorithms for the compression of multispectral images, specifically designed for nanosatellites.

The innovative configuration of this constellation makes it one of the most versatile and impactful ever developed in Europe, and a unique example of its kind for Catalonia and Spain.

The Atlantic Constellation

Lead Researcher at the IEEC

Estel Cardellach

Institute of Space Studies of Catalonia (IEEC)
Institute of Space Sciences (ICE-CSIC)
E-mail: cardellach@ieec.cat, cardellach@ice.csic.es

Adriano Camps

Institute of Space Studies of Catalonia (IEEC)
Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC)
E-mail: camps@ieec.cat, adriano.jose.camps@upc.edu