BackForwardInstrument:  MeteoSAR 

Instrument details
Acronym MeteoSAR
Full name Meteorological Synthetic Aperture Radar
Purpose High-resolution all-weather multi-purpose imager for ocean, land and ice.
Short description X-band SAR, frequency 9.623 GHz, multi-polarisation and variable swath/resolution [see detailed characteristics below]
Background Evolution of Severjanin-M on Meteor-M N1, N2, N2-1, N2-2
Scanning Technique Side-looking, swath 10 to 750 km, depending on operation mode - See table
Resolution 1 m and 5 to 500 m, depending on operation mode – See table
Coverage / Cycle Global: 2 weeks (wide swath, assuming 15 % duty cycle). More for higher resolution operation modes
Mass Power Data Rate

 

Providing Agency Roscosmos
Instrument Maturity Backed by strong heritage
Utilization Period: 2023 to 2030
Last update: 2021-06-02
Detailed characteristics
Operation mode Resolution Swath Polarisation

Spotlight

 1 m 10 km HH or VV or HV or VH

Stripmap

 5 m 30 km HH or VV or HV or VH

ScanSAR (narrow swath)

 50 m 130 km HH or VV or HV or VH

ScanSAR (medium swath)

 200 m 600 km HH or VV or HV or VH

ScanSAR (wide swath)

 500 m 750 km HH or VV or HV or VH
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
  • Fraction of vegetated land
  • Glacier motion
  • Glacier topography
  • Land cover
  • Land surface topography
  • Soil moisture at surface
  • Soil type
  • Vegetation type
Evaluation of Measurements

The following list indicates which measurements can typically be retrieved from this category of instrument. To see a full Gap Analysis by Variable, click on the respective variable.

Note: table can be sorted by clicking on the column headers
Note: * Primary mission objective.
VariableRelevance for measuring this variableOperational limitationsExplanation
Dominant wave direction2 - very highInfrequent coverage.X-band SAR. Variable measured by spectral analysis of "imagettes"
Dominant wave period2 - very highInfrequent coverage.X-band SAR. Variable measured by spectral analysis of "imagettes"
Fire fractional cover3 - highInfrequent coverage.X-band SAR. High resolution, for fire boundary detection
Fraction of vegetated land*3 - highNo specific limitation.X-band SAR
Glacier cover2 - very highLong time for mapping.X-band SAR for accurate boundary detection
Glacier motion*5 - marginalInfrequent coverage.X-band SAR for interferometry between images taken at time intervals
Glacier topography*3 - highLong time for mapping.X-band SAR for interferometry between images taken at time intervals
Ice sheet topography3 - highLong time for mapping.X-band SAR for interferometry between images taken at time intervals
Land cover*3 - highNo specific limitation.X-band SAR
Land surface topography*3 - highLong time for mapping.X-band SAR for interferometry between images taken at time intervals
Oil spill cover1 - primaryInfrequent coverage.X-band SAR
Sea-ice cover1 - primaryNo specific limitation.X-band SAR
Sea-ice elevation4 - fairNo specific limitation.X-band SAR. Sea ice elevation measured by interferometry
Sea-ice thickness4 - fairChange detection only.X-band SAR. Sea ice elevation measured by interferometry. Thickness inferred by ice model
Sea-ice type2 - very highNo specific limitation.X-band SAR. Type interpreted as age/roughness
Significant wave height3 - highHighly indirect.. Infrequent coverage.X-band SAR. Retrieved by spectral analysis of "imagettes". Boundary condition necessary for the retrieval
Snow cover3 - highThick snow only.. Infrequent coverage.X-band SAR
Snow status (wet/dry)4 - fairThick snow only.. Infrequent coverage.X-band SAR
Snow water equivalent3 - highChange detection only.. Infrequent coverage.X-band SAR. SWE is retrieved by grigging with data from ground networks
Soil moisture at surface*3 - highStrongly affected by vegetation.. Infrequent coverage.X-band SAR
Soil type*3 - highNo specific limitation.X-band SAR
Vegetation type*5 - marginalNo specific limitation.X-band SAR
Wave directional energy frequency spectrum2 - very highInfrequent coverage.X-band SAR. Variable measured by spectral analysis of "imagettes"