BackBack to listForwardSynthetic Aperture Radar 

Details on this mission type
Full name Synthetic Aperture Radar
Definition This type of mission designates side-looking radar associated to special signal analysis that enables very-high resolution imagery. The technology implies very precise trade-off between frequency, geometric resolution, swath and polarisation.
Relevant instruments and their contribution

The sorting column describes how the instruments, by design, have the potential to contribute to certain pre-determined capabilities, assuming nominal operation of space and ground segments. For this particular capability, instrument performance is considered to be driven by:

  • the operating frequency band (P, L, S, C, X and Ku) which depends on the measurement objectives.

 Sorting criteria and colour code:

  1. P-band (~ 0.435 GHz), mainly for biomass
  2. L-band (~ 1.27 GHz), mainly for ocean saalinity and possibily S-band (~ 2.7 GHz), mainly for soil moisture
  3. S-band (~ 2.7 GHz), mainly for soil moisture; OR C-band (~ 5.3 GHz), multipurpose, for both land and sea
  4. X-band (~ 9.6 GHz) and Ku-band (~ 17.2 GHz), mainly for snow and cold regions
  5. X-band (~ 9.6 GHz), mainly for disaster monitoring, mainly over land