BackInstrument:  QPS-SAR 

Instrument details
Acronym QPS-SAR
Full name QPS-SAR
Purpose For all weather land surface observations and disaster monitoring.
Short description
  • QPS-SAR is an active sensor in X-Band with a 3.6 m antenna.
  • The 9.38 GHz  antenna has a bandwidth of approximately 600 MHz, 2 kW of peak radiating power, and is capable of multiple imaging directions. 
Background

New Japanese system based on other X-Band SARs.
Scanning Technique

Gathers imagery in two modes:

  • Stripmap mode, which prioritises observation width achieves a 1.8 m spatial resolution
  • Spotlight mode achieves 0.47 m, at the cost of a smaller field of view. 
Resolution Stripmap mode 1.8 X 0.46 m Scene 14 x 7 km ; Spotlight mode 0.46 X 0.46 m Scene 7 x 7 km
Coverage / Cycle 10 min repeat cycle when 36 satellites in orbit
Mass 100 kg Power Data Rate

 

Providing Agency iQPS
Instrument Maturity Flown on operational programme
Utilization Period: 2024 to 2029
Last update: 2025-06-16
Detailed characteristics
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 4
  • SAR constellation (commercial)
  • SAR constellation (commercial)
Mission objectives
Primary mission objectives
  • Land cover
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
Fire fractional cover3 - highInfrequent coverage.X-band SAR. High resolution, for fire boundary detection
Fraction of vegetated land3 - highNo specific limitation.X-band SAR
Glacier cover2 - very highLong time for mapping.X-band SAR for accurate boundary detection
Glacier motion5 - marginalInfrequent coverage.X-band SAR for interferometry between images taken at time intervals
Glacier 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 topography3 - highLong time for mapping.X-band SAR for interferometry between images taken at time intervals
Oil spill cover1 - primaryInfrequent coverage.X-band SAR
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 surface3 - highStrongly affected by vegetation.. Infrequent coverage.X-band SAR
Soil type3 - highNo specific limitation.X-band SAR
Vegetation type5 - marginalNo specific limitation.X-band SAR