Forest fires, sunglint, and a solar eclipse: Responsive remote sensing with AeroCube-4

The AeroCube-4 CubeSat, a picosatellite in a 10-cm cube form factor with a mass of 1 kg, has performed several responsive remote-sensing activities of a nature usually performed by much larger spacecraft. By leveraging AeroCube-4´s three-axis attitude control, 2-megapixel cameras, and an extensive ground segment, more than 11,000 images have been downlinked (approximately 1 GB of data) over two years of operations. Three path-finding experiments are described here, carried out to demonstrate CubeSats´ feasibility as a platform for remote sensing: forest fire detection in the Canadian Northwest Territories, sunglint imagery, and imaging of the 3 November 2013 solar eclipse.