KOMPSAT 2 is an Earth observation satellite designed and launched by KARI, Korea Aerospace Research Institute, to provide high-res imagery of the Korean peninsula. All the images obtained are exclusively distributed by SIIS (SI Imaging Services).
The launch of KOMPSAT-2 took place on July 28, 2006. It was sent into a sun synchronous low Earth orbit with an altitude of 685.13 km and an inclination of 98.13 degrees. The satellite is equipped with a Multi-Spectral Camera (MSC), which is capable of delivering 1 m resolution panchromatic images and four bands multispectral imagery with 4 m resolution. One of the distinguishing features of KOMPSAT-2 is a strip mode operation, when segments of continuous-observation areas with defined sizes are captured one at a time.
The main objectives of KOMPSAT-2 mission are:
In October 2015 Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning together with KARI decided not to continue the mission for observation purposes. The satellite still operates on the orbit and the obtained information is going to be used for research until the end of the life cycle.