BackForwardInstrument:  AMI-SAR 

Instrument details
Acronym AMI-SAR
Full name Active Microwave Instrument - Synthetic Aperture Antenna
Purpose High-resolution all-weather multi-purpose imager for ocean, land and ice. Also wave spectra.
Short description C-band SAR, frequency 5.3 GHz, polarisation VV. Transmitter-receiver shared with scatterometer /AMI-Scat). Wave spectra achieved by processing SAR imagettes within the SAR swath. The AMI wave mode can be operated at the same time as the AMI-Scat mode [see detailed characteristics below]
Background One operating mode of AMI (Active Microwave Instrument) flown on ERS-1 and ERS-2
Scanning Technique Side-looking, 23° off-nadir, swath 100 km
Resolution 30 m
Coverage / Cycle Imagery: global coverage in 9 months average, depending on operation mode (duty cycle 12 %). Wave: global coverage in 1.5 months (duty cycle 70 %)
Mass 325.8 kg Power 4800 W Data Rate 105 Mbps

 

Providing Agency ESA
Instrument Maturity Flown on an R&D satellite
Utilization Period: 1991 to 2011
Last update: 2012-09-05
Detailed characteristics

Operation mode

Resolution

Swath

Field of regard

Polarisation

Imaging

30 m

100 km

100 km

VV

Scatterometer (see AMI-Scat)

 

 

 

 

Wave

30 m

5 x 5 km2 imagettes sampled at 200-300 km intervals

VV

Satellites this instrument is flying on

Note: a red tag indicates satellites no longer operational, a green tag indicates operational satellites, a blue tag indicates future satellites

Instrument classification
  • Earth observation instrument
  • Active and radio-occultation sensor
  • Imaging radar (SAR)
WIGOS Subcomponents
  • Subcomponent 1
  • SAR imagers and altimeters
  • SAR imager
Mission objectives
Primary mission objectives
  • Glacier cover
  • Glacier motion
  • Glacier topography
  • Ice sheet topography
  • Land surface topography
  • Sea-ice cover
  • Sea-ice type
Evaluation of Measurements