BackForwardInstrument:  UMBRA-SAR 

Instrument details
Acronym UMBRA-SAR
Full name SAR instrument for UMBRA satellites
Purpose To make all weather observations of the land surface features at high spatial resolution.
Short description Imaging radar in X-Band with 1200 MHz bandwidth which can image down to 25 cm resolution.
Background A new commercial company launching a constellation of SARs for land surface applications.
Scanning Technique Four different modes see table below.
Resolution Depends on viewing option. Spotlight and Extended Dwell modes can image down to 25cm ground plane resolution.
Coverage / Cycle For a 12 satellite constellation, polar latitudes 15 min repeat, mid-latitudes 30 min repeat and tropical latitudes 45 min repeat.
Mass 70 kg Power 500 W Data Rate

 

Providing Agency UMBRA
Instrument Maturity Flown on operational programme
Utilization Period: 2021 to 2035
Last update: 2022-08-08
Detailed characteristics

Operation mode

Resolution

Swath

Polarisation

Spotlight

0.25-4 m

4x4 km

HH or VV

Stripmap

3 m

5-20 km x 50 km

HH or VV

Extended Dwell 

0.25-2 m

4x4 km

HH or VV

Scanning

10 m

100x100 km

HH or 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 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
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 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
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