Abstract for: The Diffusion of Constellations of Small SAR Satellites: A Complex System Approach

Marine oil spills may cause major environmental damage. SAR (Synthetic Aperture Radar) sensors seem to be one of the most effective instruments for oil spills monitoring. SAR imagery, provided by large satellites carrying SAR instruments, has been successfully employed in this task. But the fabrication and deployment issues associated with placing a large SAR satellite into orbit are not compatible with the growing demand for spaceborne SAR imagery. Any failures in these satellites can cause irreparable damage to the user community, because its replacement into orbit is expensive and time consuming. These constraints might open a “market window” for a new technology which has recently been developed: the constellations of small SAR satellites. The present paper proposes an analytical tool for exploring the diffusion of this innovation in the global market of marine oil spills SAR monitoring: a hybrid model based on Bass Model and Social Network Analysis (SNA).