Technical characteristics of Radarsat-1 spacecraft
|
Name of the spacecraft |
Radarsat-1 |
|---|---|
|
Country |
Canada |
|
Developer |
Canadian Space Agency |
|
Operator |
MDA’s Geospatial Services International |
|
Launch date |
04.11.1995 |
| Orbit altitude range, km | 783 - 787 |
|
Equipment |
SAR |
|
Power, W |
2200 |
|
The mass of spacecraft, kg |
3150 |
The Radarsat-1 satellite is equipped with multi-functional radar with a synthesized aperture, which allows all-weather shooting with a resolution of 8-100 m in the field of view from 50 to 500 km. The unique properties of radar photography are its independence from natural light (i.e., the time of day and year) and cloud cover, which is transparent for it.
Shooting modes and types of commercial products
| Shooting mode | Fine | Vide | Standart | Extended | ScanSar-W | ScanSar-N |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Resolution, m |
9×9 | 28×25 | 28×25 | 28×23 | 50×50 | 100×100 |
|
Shooting bandwidth, km |
50 | 75 | 100 | 150 | 300 | 500 |
|
Wavelength, cm |
5,6 (c-band) | |||||
|
Polarization |
Horizontal |
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|
File format |
CEOS | |||||
|
Processing |
Radiometric, sensory and geometric correction, reduction to a map projection | |||||
|
The frequency of shooting |
8 days |
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|
Minimum order area |
One standard scene for any of the modes |
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|
Product delivery |
Direct transfer; on-Line FTP; Courier on DVD |
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Radarsat-1 has long been the world's most advanced commercial satellite, specifically designed to capture terrain for the benefit of a wide range of users.
Main directions of using data obtained by Radarsat-1 spacecraft:
Global all-weather, regardless of the time of day, monitoring of the state of the ice cover, vegetation, the degree of destruction in areas of natural disasters, geological exploration, forestry, coastal zone research and Oceanology, monitoring of oil spills, monitoring of flood areas.
In addition, radar images can identify moving objects, determine the speed and direction of their movement, as well as get information about the height of the terrain being probed and its displacement under the influence of various factors. Space radar also helps in observing objects hidden by vegetation and located in the surface layer of the earth or in the coastal zone of reservoirs (buried pipelines, communication lines, power lines, etc.)