CubeSats formation for hydrological studies

Hydrological conditions leading to floods and droughts are amongst the greatest challenges and threats facing the world's population. Inundation and wetlands under forest canopies are challenging to measure and undetected flooding can lead to methane greenhouse gas emissions unaccounted for by Earth System Models. Using different techniques, the HydroSwarm mission will demonstrate the advantage of formation flying of CubeSats to increase the coverage and accuracy of GNSS Reflectometry inundation and soil moisture measurements over tropical forested rivers and wetland areas such as the Amazon and Congo Basins.

ESA is helping to fund a mission concept study for this idea, proposed by Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd together with the Institut d'Estudis Espacials de Catalunya. PULSARS is one of the seven selected ideas of ESA Preparation's open call for innovative new mission concepts enabled by CubeSat swarms. Read more about the selected ideas here.