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

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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

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Use of Multiple Polarizations for Crop Identification

RADARSAT-2 Fine Quad PolJuly 16, 2008

R-HH, G-VH, B-VV

Corn

Wheat

Soybean

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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.