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RADARSAT news

A RADARSAT-2 Symposium was held at the Canadian Space Agency September 11- 15, 2006.
// The RADARSAT-2 information website www.radarsat2.info has a “new” look.

Symposium
A RADARSAT-2 Symposium was held at the Canadian Space Agency September 11- 15, 2006. Over 300 national/international delegates attended the Symposium where the features and benefits of the new RADARSAT-2 satellite and programme were discussed (e.g. high-resolution imaging, fully polarimetric data and heightened system responsiveness)
Industry sessions led by MDA Geospatial Services International discussed such topics as: the RADARSAT-2 commercialization process, Canadian remote sensing legislation, RADARSAT-2 services, the ground segment and acquisition planning.
Over 30 presentations were given by SOAR (Scientific and Operation Applications of RADARSAT-2) research participants. Topics included: InSAR, ship surveillance and classification, polarimetry for agriculture and land use classification and hydrocarbon seep detection in offshore basins.
New RADARSAT-2 Information Website Launched
The RADARSAT-2 information website www.radarsat2.info has a “new” look. Designed with a focus on easy navigation and populated with up-to-date and succinct information, the new website places information at just a click away.
Designed for current and future RADARSAT users, the website provides a resource of information on such topics as: RADARSAT-2 Applications (guidelines and case studies), Satellite Construction and Testing Status, Polarimetry, the Science and Operational Applications Research (SOAR) RADARSAT-2 Program, and Products and Services.
The website is a collaboration between MDA, the Canadian Space Agency and the Canada Centre for Remote Sensing. Look for new content as the site evolves over the coming months during the final preparations for RADARSAT-2!
New products: Ocean Surface Wind Information
New wind product from MDA GSI
The SAR-derived ocean wind product provides both high-resolution ocean surface wind speed and wind direction values. These two standard wind field products are available in a choice of grid spacing (resolution) and spatial coverage.
Ocean surface wind field products provide valuable information on the conditions of the ocean environment. This information is used to improve the interpretation of SAR data for maritime activities such as ship surveillance and oil monitoring and is also a key input for weather modeling/prediction and oil spill trajectory modeling.
Input Data
The SAR-derived wind products are created from RADARSAT-1 or ENVISAT ASAR imagery. The products are created using either ScanSAR beam mode imagery (RADARSAT-1) or Wide beam mode imagery (RADARSAT-1 or ENVISAT) depending on your resolution and spatial needs.
ScanSAR imagery offers a greater spatial coverage (500km x 500km for ScanSAR Wide, and 300km x 300km for ScanSAR Narrow) than Wide beam mode imagery (150km x 150km). However, Wide beam mode imagery provides greater resolution of the wind field.
Benefits
• High-resolution data and synoptic coverage captures the spatial variation and dynamics of the wind field
• Rapid production and delivery ensures you have the wind field product in your hands within the hour following data processing of your SAR image
• Cost-effective as the wind field information is an additional piece of information extracted from the SAR image you have acquired for your application
• Regular updates of the wind field information are available as a result of frequent satellite revisit schedules
Product Specifications
• Wind Speed Data
• 800m – 3.2km grid spacing
• Accurate to ± 2m/s (nominal accuracy *)
• Wind Direction Data
• 800m – 3.2km grid spacing **
• Accurate to ± 25° (nominal accuracy *)
• Product Format
• Data is delivered in ASCII format (example)
• Overview map is delivered in JPEG format
• Product Delivery
• Electronic delivery (FTP / e-mail) in under 4 hours of data reception at the Canadian Processing Facility
* Independent source of wind direction is used. Client may provide local wind data (eg. buoy) or MDA will use the best available source from the public domain.
** Derived from a 25 – 50km cell
(Source MDA)