Capabilities of RADARSAT-2 and
use by the Canadian Government
Daniel De LisleManager, RADARSAT-2 Applications & Utilisations Canadian Space Agency
RADARSAT-2 Data and Products © MacDONALD, DETTWILER AND ASSOCIATES LTD., 2008 – All Rights Reserved
Key Priorities and ObjectivesResponding to the challenges of:Monitoring the environmentManaging natural resourcesPerforming coastal surveillance
• Objectives:Data continuity from RADARSAT-1Maintain Canada's position in SAR capabilities for Earth observation, in partnership with the Private Sector – MacDonald Dettwiler and Associates (MDA) New applications opportunities
RADARSAT-2 operates in an orbit identical as RADARSAT-1 except for a 180o offset
Dec 14, 2007
1995: RADARSAT-1
2007: RADARSAT-2
2014:2015: 2015: RCM
Imaging frequency Spatial resolution
Polarization Repeat Cycle (Coherent change detection)
RADARSAT-2 C-Band, 5.405 GHz <3 to 100 m Single, Dual, Polarimetric
24 days
RADARSAT-1 C-Band, 5.3 GHz 10 to 100 m Single (HH) 24 days
RCM (3 satellites)
C-Band, 5.405 GHz <5 to 100 m Single, Dual, Polarimetric (exp)
12 days / sat (4 days)
Envisat ASAR C-Band, 5.331 GHz 30 to 1000 m Single, Dual 35 days
ALOS PALSAR L-Band, 1.27 GHz 10 to 100 m Single, Dual, Polarimetric (exp)
46 days
COSMO SkyMed (4 satellites)
X-Band 9.6 GHz 1 to 100 m Single, Dual 16 days / sat (5 days)
TerraSAR-X X-Band, 9.650 GHz 1 to 15 m Single, Dual, Polarimetric (exp)
11 days
Sentinel (5 sat., 1 SAR)
C-Band, 5.405 GHz 5 to 100 m Single, Dual 12 days
CSA EO Strategy: Focus on the Priorities of Canadians
• Sovereignty - monitoring the Arctic sea lines and territories
• Safety - navigation in ice-laden waters, disaster management
• Environment - monitoring the health of the ozone layer and the transport of air pollutants
• Climate - understanding the factors controlling the climate, monitoring changes resulting from climate variations
• Resources - forests, agriculture, mineral and energy exploration, etc
RADARSAT Government Clients
• Environment Canada (including Canadian Ice Service)
• Department of National Defence• Department of Fisheries and Oceans• Natural Resources Canada • Agriculture and Agri-food Canada• Indian and Northern Affairs Canada• Parks Canada• Public Safety
…and others
Environment Canada – Ice Mapping
Environment Canada ISTOPEnvironment Canada ISTOPIntegrated Satellite Tracking of Polluters
Davis Strait, Nunavut
Offshore petroleum seep detection
Department of National Defence Coastal SurveillanceDepartment of National Defence Coastal Surveillance
CFB Petawawa: Incidence Angle Dependence Study
Freeman Classification
(S, V, D)
Dominant ScattererChange: 22° 37 ° ( no
change, S V, V S)
Change in dominant scattering with incidence angle
(D,V,S)
Processing and analysis courtesy of Joseph Buckley,
Royal Military College of Canada, and Don Leckie, Canadian Forest Service
RA
DA
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AT-2 D
ata and Products ©
MacD
ON
ALD
, DE
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R A
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CIA
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LTD., 2008 –
All R
ights Reserved
GRIP Project: Development and Demonstration of Radarsat 2 Forestry
Applications
Enhancing Resilience to a Changing Climate Program
• RADARSAT-2 provides knowledge of seasonal variations of glacier ice flow
• It improves estimate of the current rates of ice discharge to the ocean and the understanding of the response of ice masses to future climate warming
• Essential to understand the impacts of external climate forcing on the dynamics of Arctic glaciersRadarsat-2 ScanSar image (HH
polarization) acquired on May 27, 2008, over the Devon ice cap, Nunavut
Color composition of scattering mechanisms:Double-bounce, Volume, Surface displayed Red, Green and Blue
RADARSAT-2 Data and Product © MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates Ltd. (2008) – All RightsReserved.
Orchard Area Forest Area
NRCan
Using C-Band Fully Polarimetric SAR Data to Discriminate Orchard From Forest Stands
Groundwater Earth Observation and Thematic Research project
MENTOR: SAR-Wind Viewer from Environment Canada•Web-based application
•Designed for forecasters
Displays:
•GEM-LAM data (Canadian regional forecast system)
•Buoy observations
•SAR-derived winds colour-coded (RadarSat-1, Envisat)
•Level-1 SAR data
•Proven to be a valuable complementary data set for operational marine forecasting
17
Use of Multiple Polarizations for Crop Identification
RADARSAT-2 Fine Quad PolJuly 16, 2008
R-HH, G-VH, B-VV
Corn
Wheat
Soybean
RAD
ARSAT-2 D
ata and Products ©M
acDO
NALD
, DETTW
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DASSO
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., 2008 –All R
ights Reserved
RADARSAT - MODIS Image Fusion
RADARSAT
MODIS
RADARSAT+ MODIS
Glasgow Fine Quad PolAugust 16, 2008
SOAR Science Operational Applications Research
The SOAR Program provides access to RADARSAT-2 data only for research and developpement purposes.
The SOAR Program provides an opportunity to explore the enhanced capabilities of RADARSAT-2 and their potential contributions to applications through a loan of limited amounts of RADARSAT-2 data to research projects.
Now that the satellite is fully operational, Government of Canada will develop specific R&D initiatives under the SOAR Program umbrella.
• SOAR International– Pre-launch initiative to promote R2: 192 supported projects
• SOAR Education– Provide access of RADARSAT-2 data to Canadian Universities for R&D
• SOAR Province– Provide access of RADARSAT-2 data to Provincial entities as an
incentive similar to RADARSAT-1• SOAR EU
– Provide access of RADARAT-2 data to European scientists for R&D projects in collaboration with ESA
– Similar to category 1 data for Envisat• SOAR CX
– Collaboration with DLR for a joint AO R2 TerraSAR X• SOAR Africa
– Contribution to the CEOS TIGER initiative
RADARSAT-2 Background Mission • Task the satellite when no other scenes are being
ordered – Reduces the use of the block data allocation while optimizing the use of the satellite.
• Very low priority acquisitions
• Creation of a thematic archive with “to be processed later” data
• Risk of acquiring very few or no data for a given application
Background Mission Themes of interest
• Agriculture: Crop inventory, Tillage, Soil Moisture, Land Cover / Land Use• Ecology: Ecological Monitoring, Habitat Monitoring, Land Use / Land Cover,
Wetlands, National Parks Surveillance , Oil & gas monitoring, IPY projects• Forestry: Change and Biomass, Environmental Effects, Land Cover and Land Cover
Change, Random Needs (bad burn year, ice storm, insect defoliation, wind storms…)• Geology: Surficial Geology & Structure, Permafrost Monitoring, Oil & Gas
Exploration, Background Glaciology Movement, Mosaic of High Arctic• Hydrology: Groundwater, Surface Water Mapping, River Ice / Lake Ice, Melt Extent,
Permafrost, Glaciology, Flooding• Mapping: Major Cities/Landmarks, Mosaic of Canada, Native Reserves, Coastline• Security and Safety: Disturbance Monitoring, Change Detection, Geological Hazards,
Subsidence, Coastal zones surveillance• Topography: Planimetry - Altimetry
For More Information…Canadian Space Agency Web Site:
- www.space.gc.ca/rsat2-e- www.space.gc.ca/rsat2-f
MDA-GSI Web Site: Data sets are available for anyone to download from www.radarsat2.info. It includes a Vancouver data set of all beam modes and Quadpol data from research sites of:
- San Francisco, USA- Oberfaffenhofen, Germany- Flevoland – Netherlands- Altona, Canada- Straight of Gibraltar.