SAOCOM 1-A
Country: Argentina · Also known as: 2018-076A
Live Position
Ground Track · Last 90 Minutes
Upcoming Passes · Over Your Location
About This Satellite
SAOCOM 1A entered orbit in October 2018 as Argentina's first radar satellite mission. CONAE developed it with INVAP, VENG, CNEA, national suppliers, and cooperation from the Italian Space Agency. Its L-band radar measures microwave returns from the landscape, supporting investigations of water, vegetation, and terrain rather than producing ordinary visible-light photographs.
The first scene showed Patagonia through radar echoes
CONAE dates its first image to October 25, 2018. The ascending StripMap acquisition covered Andean Patagonia, including Lakes San Martin and Viedma, using VV and VH polarizations. Those labels distinguish the transmitted and received polarization combinations; they are not the red, green, and blue wavelength bands of a conventional camera.
A blue lake in a radar display is not a true-colour measurement
The published composite assigns radar measurements to display colours. CONAE explains that calm water can appear dark because its surface is smooth, while wind roughens the water and changes the return. Enhancement can tint dark areas blue or red. Read the acquisition mode and colour recipe before treating the picture as evidence of a surface's natural colour.
Mission reference: CONAE: SAOCOM 1A first radar image and interpretation. Editorial review: .
Field measurements test the soil-moisture interpretation
In a 2022 study around Antofagasta de la Sierra in Catamarca, researchers compared satellite information with soil measurements taken in wetlands and surrounding terrain. They used a probe at several depths, where ground conditions allowed sampling, to help calibrate and validate moisture models. Those field sampling depths do not mean the radar directly measured a separate moisture layer at every one of those depths.
Reference: CONAE: field validation of SAOCOM moisture models in Catamarca.
One water-management study combined several kinds of evidence
The Catamarca work used both SAOCOM 1A and 1B alongside other remote-sensing information and vegetation and terrain indices. Its results should therefore be attributed to that combined analysis, not to a single photograph from 1A. For a comparison across dates, retain the spacecraft, acquisition time, processing method, and field-validation context; these explain what an apparent wet or dry patch actually represents.
Reference: CONAE: combined SAOCOM and environmental evidence for water management.
Reading this orbital snapshot
Based on TLE epoch: 2026-09-05. Estimated altitude ranges from 621 km at perigee to 624 km at apogee, a difference of 2 km. The orbital period is about 97.2 minutes. Eccentricity 0.00015 indicates a nearly circular path. In a two-body approximation, perigee speed is 1.00 times apogee speed. These are mean-element estimates, not instantaneous measurements. Distance per orbit uses an ellipse approximation.
Saved build snapshot. If a valid TLE is retrieved, this explanation and the orbit panel update together. Otherwise this dated snapshot is retained.
Ground track is not sensor coverage
An inclination of 97.89 degrees implies approximate geocentric ground-track limits of 82.1 degrees north and south. This is a retrograde orbit, moving against the direction of Earth rotation. The plotted line marks the point beneath the object. It does not represent camera coverage, radio reception, or a guaranteed visible pass.
Accuracy and missing information
The introductory record describes the build snapshot. The orbital snapshot explanation and orbit panel share any successfully retrieved TLE; check the displayed epoch. Reentered objects retain historical data only. Mission history is not rewritten by TLE updates. TLE/SGP4 positions are predictions and can change after maneuvers or updated observations. The 14-day stale-data cutoff is a display safeguard, not an accuracy guarantee. Local passes are geometric predictions, not a visibility forecast. No verified operator or mission status means unknown, not active. Do not use this catalog for collision avoidance or operational flight decisions.
Catalog sources: CelesTrak SATCAT: NORAD 43641 · GCAT: S43641 (source update 2026 Sep 4 2345:57). Supplementary metadata: SatNOGS DB, retrieved 2026-09-05T12:57:25.375Z. Page assembled 2026-09-15. GCAT phase codes describe trajectory phases, not mission health.
Learn more: TLE data · Perigee and apogee · Ground tracks · JOT (Jewawud Live Orbital Map)