WMO OSCAR | Details for Instrument SAR-X (Paz (SEOSAR))

No JavaScript detected
Usage of this Website will be severly limited without JavaScript. Please enable JavaScript in your Browser.

Instrument: SAR-X (Paz (SEOSAR))

Instrument details

Acronym	SAR-X (Paz (SEOSAR))
Full name	Synthetic Aperture Radar (X-band)
Purpose	High-resolution all-weather multi-purpose imager for ocean, land and security
Short description	X-band SAR, frequency 9.65 GHz, multi-polarisation and variable swath/resolution [see detailed characteristics below]
Background	New development
Scanning Technique	Side-looking, swath 5 to 100 km, depending on operation mode - Field of regard: …… km. See table
Resolution	1 to 15 m, depending on operation mode - See table
Coverage / Cycle	Determined by strategic pointing. Minimum revisit time for a selected location: …………d
Mass		Power	Data Rate

Providing Agency	CDTI
Instrument Maturity	Backed by strong heritage
Utilization Period:	2018 to 2025
Last update:	2021-06-15

Detailed characteristics

Operation mode	Resolution	Swath	Polarisation
Spotlight	1 m	5 km	HH or VV or HV or VH
Stripmap	3 m	30 km	HH or VV or HV or VH
ScanSAR	15 m	100 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

Satélite Español de Observación SAR (also Paz) (MDE)
- SEOSAR/Paz (see instrument status) Sep 2018 - 2025

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.

Search:

Variable	Relevance for measuring this variable	Operational limitations	Explanation
Oil spill cover	1 - primary	Infrequent coverage.	X-band SAR
Sea-ice cover	1 - primary	No specific limitation.	X-band SAR
Dominant wave direction	2 - very high	Infrequent coverage.	X-band SAR. Variable measured by spectral analysis of "imagettes"
Dominant wave period	2 - very high	Infrequent coverage.	X-band SAR. Variable measured by spectral analysis of "imagettes"
Glacier cover	2 - very high	Long time for mapping.	X-band SAR for accurate boundary detection
Wave directional energy frequency spectrum	2 - very high	Infrequent coverage.	X-band SAR. Variable measured by spectral analysis of "imagettes"
Sea-ice type	2 - very high	No specific limitation.	X-band SAR. Type interpreted as age/roughness
Fire fractional cover	3 - high	Infrequent coverage.	X-band SAR. High resolution, for fire boundary detection
Fraction of vegetated land*	3 - high	No specific limitation.	X-band SAR
Glacier topography*	3 - high	Long time for mapping.	X-band SAR for interferometry between images taken at time intervals
Ice sheet topography	3 - high	Long time for mapping.	X-band SAR for interferometry between images taken at time intervals
Land cover*	3 - high	No specific limitation.	X-band SAR
Land surface topography*	3 - high	Long time for mapping.	X-band SAR for interferometry between images taken at time intervals
Significant wave height	3 - high	Highly indirect.. Infrequent coverage.	X-band SAR. Retrieved by spectral analysis of "imagettes". Boundary condition necessary for the retrieval
Snow cover	3 - high	Thick snow only.. Infrequent coverage.	X-band SAR
Snow water equivalent	3 - high	Change detection only.. Infrequent coverage.	X-band SAR. SWE is retrieved by grigging with data from ground networks
Soil moisture at surface*	3 - high	Strongly affected by vegetation.. Infrequent coverage.	X-band SAR
Soil type*	3 - high	No specific limitation.	X-band SAR
Snow status (wet/dry)	4 - fair	Thick snow only.. Infrequent coverage.	X-band SAR
Sea-ice elevation	4 - fair	No specific limitation.	X-band SAR. Sea ice elevation measured by interferometry
Sea-ice thickness	4 - fair	Change detection only.	X-band SAR. Sea ice elevation measured by interferometry. Thickness inferred by ice model
Glacier motion*	5 - marginal	Infrequent coverage.	X-band SAR for interferometry between images taken at time intervals
Vegetation type*	5 - marginal	No specific limitation.	X-band SAR

Showing 1 to 23 of 23 entries