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Ukrainian-Russian carrier rocket Dnepr, that was launched on August 17, 2011 from the Baikonur Dombarowskij in Russia, has placed in orbit the Sich-2 satellite. It is a satellite dedicated to Earth observation, designed and manufactured by the Ukrainian space industry. Sich-2 is a continuation of the mission Sich-1, Okean-O and Sich-1M. According to the Ukrainian National Space Policy the Sich-2 gives rise to a constellation of modern micro-satellites. They are designed to collect imagery of the Earth surface in the visible and near-infrared radiation with a spatial resolution of: 8 m (Sich-2, Sich-2M), 1 m (Sich-3-O) and the 1 m radar images (Sich-3-R). Satellites are characterized by high sophistication in terms of electronic and polymeric and composite materials used during the construction. Installed devices are designed to work under the "open" space and do not require special protection in the form of sealed enclosures. Sich-2 satellite operates at a 700 km altitude on the Sun synchronous orbit and having the inclination of 98.24°. The image data are collected in four spectral bands, with a spatial resolution of 8.2 m (PAN, R, G, B) and 41.4 m in the mid-infrared (MIR). The optical system provides the ability to change viewing angle from nadir up to 30°. Width of the panchromatic and multispectral scene is 48 km (at nadir) and 58 km for the MIR scanner. The article demonstrates the possibility of using the new Ukrainian satellite images acquired from the Sich-2, which, due to the spatial resolution are similar to the image data from FORMOSAT2, SPOT-5 and RapidEye. Examples of using Sich-2 for monitoring of vegetation in built-up areas, monitoring of natural disasters (floods, snow drifts, fires) and classification of agricultural areas are presented. These are the results of work carried out by the company Dniprocosmos S.C., which specializes in satellite image processing and is a distributor of satellite data. The team of the Earth Observation Group from the Space Research Centre of the Polish Academy of Sciences acquired one of the first images from the Sich-2, that captured Polish territory. Based on a scene depicting the area around Lublin, in March 2012, analysis of interpretation possibilities were performed. It was done using the MSIIRS (Multispectral Imagery Interpretability Rating Scale) interpretation system. The Sich-2 image was classified at level 3 of eight-point scale.
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