Earth observation using radar data: an overview of applications and challenges

Figures & data

Table 1. SAR features.

Missions	Country	Band	Polarity	Resolution	Sub-cycle	Applications	Launching
Seasat	USA	L	HH	25 m	3 days	Oceanography	1978 (105 days)
ERS-1 ERS-2	Europe	C	VV	30 m	4 days	Oceanic waves, wind measuring, coast watching, glaciology, hydrology, geology, vegetation	ERS-1: 1991-2000 ERS-2:1995
JERS-1	Japan	L	HH	18 m	N/A	Environment watching, fishing and agriculture, disaster prevention	1992 – 1998
Radarsat-1	Canada	C	HH	9 m	3 à 7 days	Ocean and coast watching, glaciology, hydrology, geology, vegetation	1995
SRTM	Germany/USA	C/X	VV or HH/HH	30 m	N/A	Interferometry	2000
LightSAR	USA	L	double (HH + VV) and quadruple	3 m	<2 days	Environment and coast watching, agriculture, forestry, cartography, resource management	Planned for 2002, cancelled in 2000
Envisat	Europe	C	VV or HH or VH or HV VV + HH or HV + HH or VH + VV	30 m	3 days	Ocean watching, glaciology, hydrology, geology	2002
Alos	Japan	L	HH or VV HH + HV or VV + VH HH + VV + VH + HV	7 m	2 days	Environment watching, agriculture, forestry, disaster and resource management, interferometry	2006
Radarsat-2	Canada	C	HH or VV or VH or HV HH + HV or VV + VH HH + VV + VH + HV	3 m	Latitudes:>70°: every day >48°: 1 to 2 days Equator: 2 to 3 days	Ocean and coast watching, glaciology, geology, vegetation	2007
Risat	India	C	HH or VV or VH or HV HH + HV or VV + VH HH + VV + VH + HV	3 m	7 days	Hydrology, agriculture, forestry, cartography	2007
Saocom-1	Argentina	L	HH or VV	10 m	2 days	Risk management	2007
TerraSAR-X/Tandem- X	Germany	X	HH or VV HH + VV or HH + HV VV + HV HH + VV + VH + HV	1 m	4 to 5 days	Interferometry, coast watching, agriculture, hydrology	2007 and 2009
Cosmo-Skymed	Italy	X	HH or VV	1 m	12 hours	Glaciology, environment and ocean watching, resource and risk management, cartography	2008
TerraSAR-L	Germany	L	simple, double, quadruple	5 m	N/A	Agriculture and forestry	2008
BISSAT (see Cosmo-Skymed)	Italy	X	HH or VV or HV or VH HH + HV or VV + VH	1 m	Dependent on satellite constellation	Interferometry, classification (using various acquisition angle)	2009
GPM	Japan	Ku/Ka	H, V and circular (radiometer) HH + HV (radar)	4 km at ground/250 m vertically	3 hours	Rainfall study	2010
Sentinel-1	Europe	C	HH or VV or VH or HV HH + HV or VV + VH or HH + VV HH + VV + VH + HV	5 m	12 hours	Risk management, disasters, environment	2011
MapSAR	Brazil/Germany	L	simple, double, quadruple	3 m	<1 day	Environment, agriculture, forestry, desaster prevention, ocean watching, interferometry	2012
Note: Risat: Misra et al. 2005. Saocom-1: Giraldez 2003. BISSAT is a passive receiver only; intended to operate with COSMO-Skymed constellation (and possibly others). Actuel capabilities dependent on transmitting sensor/platform systems. GPM: based on airborne test instrument – not otherwise specified. MapSar: Schroder et al. 2005

Figure 1.  Ice field collapse in the Antarctic (Larsen platform 3250 km²). Image from Envisat (ASAR), March 2002.

Figure 2.  Two images taken by the C band DLR–SAR system (19 April and 24 May 2006),in Demmin, an agricultural site located in Mecklenburg–Vorpommern in North-East Germany.

Figure 3.  Biomass calculated using SIR-C/X-SAR in Raco, Michigan.

Figure 4.  Envisat (ASAR) image of oil pollution (shown in black) from the wreck of the tanker Prestige off the Spanish coast in November, 2002. (courtesy ESA)

Figure 5.  Flooding in Bangladesh and parts of India brought on by two weeks of persistent rain.

Figure 6.  Displacement map of Mexico City metropolitan area over six months in 1996.

Misra , T. , Rana , S.S. and Shankara , K.N. 2005 . Synthetic aperture radar payload of radar imaging satellite (RISAT) of ISRO . General Assembly of the International Union of Radio Science . New Delhi, India. 21–29 October .

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Giraldez , A.E. , 2003 . Saocom – 1 Argentina L band SAR mission overview . 2^nd Workshop on Coastal and Marine Applications of SAR . Salvard, Norway. 8–12 September .

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Schroder , R. 2005 . MAPSAR: a small L-band SAR mission for land observation . Acta Astronautica , 56 ( 1–2 ) : 35 – 43 .

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