BackForwardInstrument:  SAR-P 

Instrument details
Acronym SAR-P
Full name Synthetic Aperture Radar - P-band
Purpose Mapping of tropical, temperate and boreal forest biomass, including height and disturbance patters
Short description P-band SAR, frequency 435 MHz (69 cm), 6 MHz bandwidth, fully polarimetric, multi-pass interferometric capability. Circular antenna of 12 m diameter.
Background New development
Scanning Technique Side looking, incidence angle 25°, swath 50-60 km
Resolution 50-60 m
Coverage / Cycle Global in 25 days
Mass 206 kg Power 221 W Data Rate 117 Mbps

 

Providing Agency ESA
Instrument Maturity
Utilization Period: 2025 to 2030
Last update: 2022-03-28
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 1
  • SAR imagers and altimeters
  • SAR imager
  • Subcomponent 3
  • MW imagery [in SSO]
  • Low-frequency SAR for vegetation mapping
Mission objectives
Primary mission objectives
  • Biomass
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
Biomass*1 - primaryInfrequent coverage.P-band specifically designed for total biomass
Soil moisture (in the roots region)2 - very highInfrequent coverage.P-band SAR
Soil moisture at surface2 - very highInfrequent coverage.P-band SAR