Canada To Use Radarsat-2 To Track Ships in Arctic

摘要

When Canada's Radarsat-2 satellite is launched next summer, the Canadian Forces will enter a new era of space-based intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) capabilities. For the first time, the military will use a satellite to conduct regular surveillance of the maritime approaches to Canada and its Arctic territories. Dubbed Polar Epsilon, the Canadian Forces' use of Radarsat-2 to monitor 15 million square kilometers of ocean as well as the country's northern region is the first of two major space-based ISR systems the military will be involved with over the next four years. A second satellite, known as the Sapphire mission, is designed to feed information into the U.S. Space Surveillance Network and could be launched as early as 2009.