The currently employed remote sensing of the Earth turns out to be efficient through the use of the spacebome radar systems operating in a microwave band. These systems are featured by resolving capacity ranging from tens of meters to the units of kilometers and are capable of solving a wide variety of scientific and practical problems. The results from the spacebome synthetic aperture radars (SAR), Seasat, SIR-A, SIR-B, SIR-C, ERS-1,2, RADARSAT, etc. are widely known. In the period of August 1995 through November 1996 the first ever made Ukrainian spacebome remote sensing system SICH-1 was in operation. The unique parameters of spacebome side-looking radar of this type - medium spatial resolution (1 km) , a wide swath (500 km) with a high contrast-background sensitivity and an ability to be fully calibrated - open up wide possibilities to use the data obtained. These systems ensures that the data is transferred to users on a real-time basis. These facilities have been utilized for the remote sensing purposes for more than ten years (since 1983). During this period a good deal of experience was gained from the observations of the ocean surface processes, ocean-air interaction, sea ice, and glaciers. The side-looking radars (SLR) were employed for the study of land to a lesser extent. In this paper the questions of using SLR "SICH-1" for meteorological monitoring of the Earth on synoptical scales at a global regional level are considered.
展开▼
