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Currently, small spacecraft with both optoelectronic and radar imaging equipment are becoming increasingly common. The purpose of the work is to improve the efficiency of preliminary assessment of achievable characteristics of radio surveillance payloads at the initial stages of design of small spacecraft. The paper describes the advantages of using radar imaging equipment, as well as the main trends in its development. The main areas of application of spacecraft with radar of different frequency ranges are given; the advantages of each frequency range are described. The methodology of determining the parameters of the trajectory signal when the platform moves in a circular orbit, taking into account the assumptions associated with estimating the size of the irradiation zone in azimuth is considered. Based on the considered methodology, a program is developed in Python programming language that makes it possible to estimate the length of synthesized aperture, synthesis time and azimuthal resolution of the target equipment on the basis of mass and dimensional characteristics of the antenna and spacecraft orbit parameters. A graphical user interface has been developed for the program which allows the user to interactively vary the initial data for calculation and evaluate the graphical representation of the result. The developed software system can be used for calculation of the main design parameters of small spacecraft with radar imaging equipment at the preliminary design stage.

Prompt receipt of reliable information about the terrain with sufficient detail is one of the main tasks in the fields of national economy, territorial development or research of large territorial units. The multiplicity of error sources in Earth remote sensing materials is due to a number of factors, and the resulting terrain models have a certain degree of generalization, which directly affects the correctness of digital terrain models. This article is devoted to the analysis of existing methods for estimating errors of open digital terrain models in order to increase their accuracy. Correct digital elevation models have a high similarity to reality and can be used in regional studies to determine the morphometric indicators of the territory.

To ensure the proper functioning of Ukraine as a space nation, one of the important factors is the development of domestic legal opinion and legislation on the outlined issue. And if the topic of the formation of space law in Ukraine appears to be more researched, then its direction, such as remote sensing of the Earth from space, requires a more detailed legal analysis and legislative regulation. Evidence of this is the draft Law of Ukraine “On State Regulation in the Field of Earth Remote Sensing,” proposed in 2014, which has not yet been adopted, although its adoption is part of Ukraine’s obligations under the UkraineEU Association Agreement. In such a case, the issue of researching the legal basis of remote sensing of the Earth from space becomes relevant, where the legal nature of this phenomenon is of primary importance.In the course of the conducted scientific research, the following legal features of remote sensing of the Earth from space were proposed: 1) it is a type of information collection based on the method of observation, which is part of such a management function as monitoring; 2) it is the activity on special space systems or their separate elements operation, as well as the accumulation, processing, integration and distribution of relevant data about the Earth; 3) it is a set of space and informational means that are functionally and organizationally interconnected and ensure proper remote sensing of the Earth from space; 4) the main technical means of remote sensing of the Earth are: radars, lidars, laser altimeters, spectrometers, radiometers, accelerometers, rangefinders, echo sounders, scatter meters, etc.; 5) it is a set of legal relations, the object of which is information necessary for the development of many spheres of human activity: meteorology, ecology, nature management, seismology, prevention of emergency situations of natural and man-made origin, agroforestry improvement activities, in the field of security and defense of the country, etc. The subjects of such legal relations are defined as operators, primary subjects of service provision, secondary subjects of service provision, consumers, as well as a set of authorized controlling authorities. The reasons for the emergence of such legal relations, to which the author includes international and domestic normative acts dedicated to the legal regulation of remote sensing of the Earth, are also revealed; 6) it is a comprehensive institution of space law; 7) is an interdisciplinary science that combines scientific developments in the specifics of space meteorology, geodesy, geology, hydrology, oceanology, earth science, etc.

Extremely little attention is paid to the issues of detecting and interpreting of central type structures (CTSs) when conducting remote structural-geological and structural-geomorphological studies. At the same time, in the 1970–1980s, it was proven that CTSs play an important role in the localization of deposits and ore fields. The position of these structures must necessarily be taken into account when solving problems of searching for and predicting mineral resources in the context of metallogenic analysis and reconstruction of the geological history of development of the studied areas. The almost complete absence of results of mass detection and interpreting of CTSs can be explained by the still poorly developed methodology for identifying and analyzing this type of structure. In the present study for the territory of Southeastern Transbaikalia, based on modern geoinformation technologies, the use of remote sensing data (radar topographic survey) of high resolution, the creation of a digital elevation model, and the application of an integrated structural-spatial analysis, an author's approach to detection and interpretation of the CTSs is presented, including in connection with the localization of ore objects of various geological-industrial (geological-genetic) types within the framework of the concept of the formation of mineral systems. A statistical analysis of the CTSs identified in the area was carried out, which made it possible to establish a smooth increase in the number of structures with a decrease in their diameter. It is shown that the spatial maxima of ore mineralization extent within the territory are concentrated on the periphery of large CTSs and in their immediate vicinity. Most of the known large ore objects are confined to the internal areas of structures less than 10 km in diameter. Based on the approach of constructing model sections, it was possible to reconstruct the deep position of magma chambers associated with the identified CTSs, and, thereby, to determine the probable sources of metal-bearing fluids. A close spatial relationship between the identified magma chambers and deep faults has been established. To determine the most favorable sites for the deposition of ore mineralization, based on structural-spatial criteria, which include not only structural elements of the CTSs, but also segments of known fault structures, weight of evidence models of the territory have been created. The accuracy of the complex model is 89%. Thus, in accordance with the concept of mineral systems, the sources, migration pathways, and sites of the most probable deposition of ore mineralization have been reconstructed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The problem of the interferometric phase unwrapping in radar remote sensing of Earth systems is considered. Such interferograms are widely used in the problems of creating and updating maps of the relief of the Earth's surface in geodesy, cartography, environmental monitoring, geological, hydrological and glaciological studies, and for monitoring transport communications. Modern radar systems have ultra-high spatial resolution and a wide band, which leads to the need to unwrap large interferograms from several tens of millions of elements. The implementation of calculations by these methods requires a processing time of several days. In this paper, an effective method for equalizing the inverse vortex field for phase unwrapping is proposed, which allows solving a problem with quasi-linear computational complexity depending on the interferogram size and the number of singular points on it. To implement the method, a parallel algorithm for solving the problem on a multi-core processor using OpenMP technology was developed. Numerical experiments on radar data models were carried out to investigate the effectiveness of the algorithm depending on the size of the source data, the density of singular points and the number of processor cores. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the urgent tasks of modern agricultural production is the problem of further development of agricultural production on an innovative platform. This will increase labor productivity, save resources, reduce costs, reduce production costs, increase production efficiency and ensure food security of Ukraine, which is one of the largest producers and exporters of wheat, corn, and barley in the world. One of such technologies that can ensure high profitability of agricultural production is the precision farming system. The concept of precision farming is based on the spatial heterogeneity of soil characteristics (relief, soil-forming rocks, snow cover, influence of ground and rainwater, diversity of vegetation cover, the impact of wildlife and human activities, etc.) within one field followed by differential compensation of these differences within one field. One of the key elements of the introduction of precision farming technologies is a differentiated approach to conducting all agricultural operations in the field. At the same time, savings of fuels and lubricants, consumption of seed material, fertilizers, plant protection products, water, the machine and tractor park of the enterprise is more effectively used, and the impact of agriculture on the natural environment is mitigated. The purpose of the research is the technology of precision farming in general, and variable rate seeding (Variable Rate Seeding, VRS) in particular, which allow you to correctly and precisely regulate the rate of sowing agricultural crops, applying fertilizers, plant protection products, irrigation in accordance with the properties of the soil, relief, meteorological conditions and a number of other factors. This allows to optimize the use of agricultural resources for each section of the field and improve plant productivity based on data on soil structure, pH, nutrient elements and yield maps [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To ensure the proper functioning of Ukraine as a space nation, one of the important factors is the development of domestic legal opinion and legislation on the outlined issue. And if the topic of the formation of space law in Ukraine appears to be more researched, then its direction, such as remote sensing of the Earth from space, requires a more detailed legal analysis and legislative regulation. Evidence of this is the draft Law of Ukraine "On State Regulation in the Field of Earth Remote Sensing," proposed in 2014, which has not yet been adopted, although its adoption is part of Ukraine's obligations under the Ukraine- EU Association Agreement. In such a case, the issue of researching the legal basis of remote sensing of the Earth from space becomes relevant, where the legal nature of this phenomenon is of primary importance. In the course of the conducted scientific research, the following legal features of remote sensing of the Earth from space were proposed: 1) it is a type of information collection based on the method of observation, which is part of such a management function as monitoring; 2) it is the activity on special space systems or their separate elements operation, as well as the accumulation, processing, integration and distribution of relevant data about the Earth; 3) it is a set of space and informational means that are functionally and organizationally interconnected and ensure proper remote sensing of the Earth from space; 4) the main technical means of remote sensing of the Earth are: radars, lidars, laser altimeters, spectrometers, radiometers, accelerometers, rangefinders, echo sounders, scatter meters, etc.; 5) it is a set of legal relations, the object of which is information necessary for the development of many spheres of human activity: meteorology, ecology, nature management, seismology, prevention of emergency situations of natural and man-made origin, agroforestry improvement activities, in the field of security and defense of the country, etc. The subjects of such legal relations are defined as operators, primary subjects of service provision, secondary subjects of service provision, consumers, as well as a set of authorized controlling authorities. The reasons for the emergence of such legal relations, to which the author includes international and domestic normative acts dedicated to the legal regulation of remote sensing of the Earth, are also revealed; 6) it is a comprehensive institution of space law; 7) is an interdisciplinary science that combines scientific developments in the specifics of space meteorology, geodesy, geology, hydrology, oceanology, earth science, etc. Based on the selected features, the author's definition of the concept of remote sensing of the Earth from space is formulated in the work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Remote sensing of the Earth is now widely used in various fields. One of the challenges of remote sensing is the creation of inexpensive satellite systems operating in polar circular orbits. These systems require the development of a receptiontransmission system that allows tens of gigabits of video information to be transmitted to an earth receiving station within ten minutes. That is, there is a need to create a communication system that provides high speed data transmission from small satellites weighing up to 50 kg. Objective. The aim of the work is to study the features of digital signal formation in modern satellite communication lines and to develop a communication system with a high data transfer rate (usually 300 Mbit/s), which can be applied to small Earth Observation satellites. Method. Proposed concept for building a high-speed data transmitter from a remote sensing earth satellite using commercially available off-the-shelf technology. Calculations of the power flow density created at the input of the receiving earth station were performed to find out the possible power of the on-board transmitter. Results. A diagram of a communication system based on the DVB-S standard using the technology of commercially available off-the-shelf products has been developed. The high-speed data transmitter is implemented on a Xilinx® Zynq Ultrascale+ ™ MPSoC FPGA microchip, which is located on an Enclustra Mercury XU8 module with a high-performance dual 16-bit AD9174 DAC. The on-board transmitter with a power of up to 2 W meets the requirements of the ITU Radio Regulations for the power flux density on the surface of the Earth, which is created by the radiation of the space station EESS in the range 8025–8400 MHz. It is shown that the energy reserve of the communication line of 3 dB is achieved for various commands for coding and modulation changes with an increase in the elevation angle, which allows to increase the speed of information transmission. Conclusions. An original receiving-transmitting system was developed for use in small satellites for remote sensing of the Earth. It is shown that the function of adaptive modeling of ACM of the DVB-S standard allows you to automatically change the transmission parameters in real time depending on the changing conditions of the channel, providing opportunities for more flexible and effective data transmission in various conditions, which will allow to increase the volumes of information transmitted by communication session. The proposed system operates in the X-band and is built using commercially available off-the-shelf products. An antenna with double circular polarization is used as the emitter. Two physical channels represent two polarization modes: right circular polarization and left circular polarization, each of which has three frequency channels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The problem of the interferometric phase unwrapping in radar remote sensing of Earth systems is considered. Such interferograms are widely used in the problems of creating and updating maps of the relief of the Earth’s surface in geodesy, cartography, environmental monitoring, geological, hydrological and glaciological studies, and for monitoring transport communications. Modern radar systems have ultra-high spatial resolution and a wide band, which leads to the need to unwrap large interferograms from several tens of millions of elements. The implementation of calculations by these methods requires a processing time of several days. In this paper, an effective method for equalizing the inverse vortex field for phase unwrapping is proposed, which allows solving a problem with quasi-linear computational complexity depending on the interferogram size and the number of singular points on it. To implement the method, a parallel algorithm for solving the problem on a multi-core processor using OpenMP technology was developed. Numerical experiments on radar data models were carried out to investigate the effectiveness of the algorithm depending on the size of the source data, the density of singular points and the number of processor cores.