The RADARSAT-2/3 Topographic Mission

摘要

The RADARSAT-2 Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) satellite currently under development, is jointly funded by the Canadian government and MacDonald Dettwiler. RADARSAT-2 will further Canada's world-leading position in SAR based Earth Observation, and provide considerable opportunities for growth in technical expertise and environmental, agricultural, and commercial applications Plans are now in preparation for the development of a RADARSAT-3 satellite to be operated interferometrically in tandem with RADARSAT-2 to provide very high precision global topographic data. This paper describes the mission concept, explains the key characteristics of the two satellites, and discusses some of the design and operational issues. The system concept potentially includes both Bistatic and "Pursuit Monostatic" operation of the two radars, and both options are described.