The UAE Space Agency has announced a new three billion dirhams ($816 million) investment and development fund for the space sector, which will support new programmes in leading edge space sector engineering, sciences and research. The fund’s first investment will be in the development and launch of a constellation of advanced imaging satellites for the emirates, using the SAR (Synthetic Aperture Radar) technology. The constellation is to be named Sirb after the Arabic term for a flock of birds, and will address the critical need for better environmental and land usage monitoring, data collection and analysis to meet today’s global challenges. The planned satellites will be able to create highly detailed and complex radar ‘images’ of land use, ice cover, surface changes and characterisation, with a wide range of scientific, civil and commercial applications.
