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36-531: RADARSAT-1 was Canada's first commercial Earth observation satellite . It utilized synthetic aperture radar (SAR) to obtain images of the Earth's surface to manage natural resources and monitor global climate change. As of March 2013, the satellite was declared non-operational and is no longer collecting data. RADARSAT-1 was launched at 14:22 UTC on 4 November 1995, from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California , into

72-723: A Sun-synchronous orbit (dawn-dusk) above the Earth with an altitude of 798 km (496 mi) and inclination of 98.60°. Developed under the management of the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) in co-operation with Canadian provincial governments and the private sector, it provided images of the Earth for both scientific and marketing purposes. RADARSAT-1's images were useful in many fields, including agriculture, cartography, hydrology, forestry, oceanography, geology, ice and ocean monitoring, arctic surveillance, and detecting ocean oil slicks. The Canadian Space Agency (CSA) RADARSAT-1 project

108-536: A relatively low altitude. Most orbit at altitudes above 500 to 600 kilometers (310 to 370 mi). Lower orbits have significant air-drag , which makes frequent orbit reboost maneuvers necessary. The Earth observation satellites ERS-1, ERS-2 and Envisat of European Space Agency as well as the MetOp spacecraft of EUMETSAT are all operated at altitudes of about 800 km (500 mi). The Proba-1 , Proba-2 and SMOS spacecraft of European Space Agency are observing

144-450: A resolution of 30 m (98 ft); and ScanSAR wide, which covered a 500 × 500 km (310 × 310 mi) (250,000 km (97,000 sq mi)) area with a resolution of 100 m (330 ft). RADARSAT-1 also had the unique ability to direct its beam at different angles. With an orbital period of 100.70 minutes, RADARSAT-1 circles the Earth 14 times a day. The orbit path repeats every 24 days, this means that

180-512: A wide margin. Radarsat-2 was launched on 14 December 2007 from Baikonur , Kazakhstan RADARSAT-1 covered the Arctic daily, and most of Canada every 72 hours depending on instrument orientation and mode. It covered the entire Earth every 24 days. On 29 March 2013, RADARSAT-1 experienced a technical problem. The Canadian Space Agency (CSA) assembled a team of engineers, who conducted an extensive investigation. Following numerous attempts to resolve

216-510: Is classified in accordance with ITU Radio Regulations (article 1) as follows: Fixed service (article 1.20) The allocation of radio frequencies is provided according to Article 5 of the ITU Radio Regulations (edition 2012). In order to improve harmonisation in spectrum utilisation, the majority of service-allocations stipulated in this document were incorporated in national Tables of Frequency Allocations and Utilisations which

252-484: Is entering its 12th operational service year. Numerous enhancements have been added to the original capabilities both on the ground and on the space segments. The operational performance is well within the specification with an acquisition success rate above 97% (Acquisition successfully executed Vs Acquisition loaded on the Spacecraft for execution) and a percentage of availability of 99.95% (hours of outage Vs total hours in

288-500: Is filling a wide variety of application, including sea ice mapping and ship routing, iceberg detection, agricultural crop monitoring, marine surveillance for ship and pollution detection, terrestrial defence surveillance and target identification, geological mapping, mine monitoring, land use mapping, wetlands mapping, topographic mapping. On 4 July 2009, Canada's Department of National Defence announced their intention to increase RADARSAT-2 usage for surveillance of Canada's coastlines and

324-539: Is owned by MDA (formerly MacDonald Dettwiler and Associates.) RADARSAT-2 uses C-band synthetic-aperture radar (SAR). Data may be acquired in any combination of horizontal and vertical polarizations (HH, HV, VV, VH). Resolution and swath width depends on the operation mode; the resolution range is 1 to 100 metres, and the swath width ranges from 18 to 500 kilometres. The satellite allows for routine left- and right-looking operations, permitting faster revisit times and routine Antarctic mapping. The payload module

360-486: Is with-in the responsibility of the appropriate national administration. The allocation might be primary, secondary, exclusive, and shared. However, military usage, in bands where there is civil usage, will be in accordance with the ITU Radio Regulations. Radarsat-2 RADARSAT-2 is a Canadian Space Agency (CSA) Earth observation satellite . It launched on 14 December 2007 aboard a Starsem Soyuz-FG rocket from Baikonur Cosmodrome , Kazakhstan . The spacecraft

396-439: The ionosphere . The United States Army Ballistic Missile Agency launched the first American satellite, Explorer 1 , for NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory on January 31, 1958. The information sent back from its radiation detector led to the discovery of the Earth's Van Allen radiation belts . The TIROS-1 spacecraft, launched on April 1, 1960, as part of NASA's Television Infrared Observation Satellite (TIROS) program, sent back

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432-600: The Arctic. To carry out this new project, the satellite's owner MDA was awarded $ 25-million contract to carry out upgrades (called project Polar Epsilon ) to enhance the satellites capabilities to detect surface ships. The upgrades consisted of creating new beam mode (OSVN and DVWF) that target improvements in maritime vessels detection over a broad area, as well as upgrading the RADARSAT-2 ground segment to improve conflict resolution with other government users. Two new ground stations for

468-507: The CSA began exploring Russian and European Space Agency (ESA) launch options. Boeing was selected in 2003 to provide a commercial launch on a Delta II ., and finally Starsem in 2005. The search for launch options delayed the program and initially added costs, although the Starsem option ultimately reduced project costs. Further difficulties and delays arose with the bus subsystem. Originally,

504-430: The Earth at a single microwave frequency of 5.3 GHz, in the C band (wavelength of 5.6 cm). The SAR support structure was designed and manufactured by Northrop Grumman Astro Aerospace and deployed to 15 m (49 ft) in length on orbit. Unlike optical satellites that sense reflected sunlight, SAR systems transmitted microwave energy towards the surface and recorded the reflections. Thus, Radarsat-1 imaged

540-553: The Earth from an altitude of about 700 km (430 mi). The Earth observation satellites of UAE, DubaiSat-1 & DubaiSat-2 are also placed in Low Earth orbits (LEO) orbits and providing satellite imagery of various parts of the Earth. To get global coverage with a low orbit, a polar orbit is used. A low orbit will have an orbital period of roughly 100 minutes and the Earth will rotate around its polar axis about 25° between successive orbits. The ground track moves towards

576-505: The Earth, day or night, in any atmospheric condition, such as cloud cover, rain, snow, dust or haze. Each of RADARSAT-1's seven beam modes offered a different image resolution. The modes included Fine, which covers an area of 50 × 50 km (31 × 31 mi) (2,500 km (970 sq mi)) with a resolution of 10 m (33 ft); Standard, which covered an area of 100 × 100 km (62 × 62 mi) (10,000 km (3,900 sq mi)) and had

612-632: The current vegetation state to its long term average. For example, the 2002 oil spill off the northwest coast of Spain was watched carefully by the European ENVISAT , which, though not a weather satellite, flies an instrument (ASAR) which can see changes in the sea surface. Anthropogenic emissions can be monitored by evaluating data of tropospheric NO 2 and SO 2 . These types of satellites are almost always in Sun-synchronous and "frozen" orbits. A Sun-synchronous orbit passes over each spot on

648-810: The data reception have been built, one on the east coast at Masstown, N.S., and the other at Aldergrove, B.C. (west coast). These two new stations are mainly used for the Polar Epsilon project. By mid-August 2015, the addition of the Canada Centre for Mapping and Earth Observation (CCMEO, formerly CCRS) X Band receiving station in Inuvik has significantly increased RADARSAT-2 downlink capacity in Canada. The network of ground receiving station continues to expand with 19 partners organization using 53 antennas at various reception sites (as of Jun 2020). As of January 2020, RADARSAT-2

684-455: The first television footage of weather patterns to be taken from space. In 2008, more than 150 Earth observation satellites were in orbit, recording data with both passive and active sensors and acquiring more than 10 terabits of data daily. By 2021, that total had grown to over 950, with the largest number of satellites operated by US-based company Planet Labs . Most Earth observation satellites carry instruments that should be operated at

720-457: The ground at the same time of day, so that observations from each pass can be more easily compared, since the Sun is in the same spot in each observation. A "frozen" orbit is the closest possible orbit to a circular orbit that is undisturbed by the oblateness of the Earth , gravitational attraction from the Sun and Moon, solar radiation pressure , and air drag . Terrain can be mapped from space with

756-517: The ground using radio, but fell short of the idea of using satellites for mass broadcasting and as telecommunications relays. The onset of the Cold War prompted the rapid development of Satellite launch systems and camera technology capable of sufficient Earth observation to garner intelligence on enemy military infrastructure and evaluate nuclear posture. Following the U-2 incident in 1960, which highlighted

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792-427: The primary contractor. The Canada Centre for Remote Sensing (CCRS) would receive and archive the satellite's data. The launch was expected to occur around 2001. The CSA intended to launch RADARSAT-2 with National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), in exchange for data sharing. In 1998, NASA declined when it was announced that the spacecraft would be privatized, being owned and operated by MDA. In 1999,

828-417: The private sector about CA$ 63 million. RADARSAT International, Inc. (RSI), a Canadian private company, was created in 1989 to process, market and distribute RADARSAT-1 data. (RADARSAT International, Inc. (RSI) was later acquired by MacDonald Dettwiler and Associates .) In 2006, RSI was rebranded MDA Geospatial Services International or MDA GSI. RADARSAT-1 used a synthetic aperture radar (SAR) sensor to image

864-484: The problem, the CSA, in consultation with its commercial data distributor MDA Geospatial Services Inc. concluded that RADARSAT-1 was no longer operational. Earth observation satellite The first occurrence of satellite remote sensing can be dated to the launch of the first artificial satellite, Sputnik 1 , by the Soviet Union on October 4, 1957. Sputnik 1 sent back radio signals, which scientists used to study

900-658: The prospective contractor was Orbital Sciences Corporation (OSC) of the United States. A US Technical Assistance Agreement (TAA) was only provided in August 1999; restrictions imposed by US export controls made the TAA unacceptable to the CSA and Government of Canada. Ultimately, Alenia Aerospazio of Italy was selected to build the bus, with additional costs accruing from terminating the OSC contract. An ESA launch seemed likely when Alenia Aerospazio

936-608: The right side of the satellite, relative to its orbital path. As it descends in its orbit from the North Pole , it faces west, and when it ascends from the South Pole , it faces east. Locations could therefore be imaged from opposite sides. Combined with the different beam modes and positions, this provided users with many possible perspectives from which to image a location. On 4 November 2010, RADARSAT-1 celebrated its 15-year service anniversary. It outlived its planned five-year lifetime by

972-677: The risks of aerial spying, the U.S. accelerated surveillance satellite programs like CORONA . Satellites largely replaced aircraft overflights for surveillance after 1960. A weather satellite is a type of satellite that is primarily used to monitor the weather and climate of the Earth . These meteorological satellites, however, see more than clouds and cloud systems. City lights, fires , effects of pollution , auroras , sand and dust storms , snow cover, ice mapping, boundaries of ocean currents , energy flows, etc., are other types of environmental information collected using weather satellites. Weather satellite images helped in monitoring

1008-417: The satellite is in exactly the same location and could take the same image (same beam mode and beam position) every 24 days. This is useful for interferometry and detecting changes at that location that took place during the 24 days. Using different beam positions, a location can also be scanned every few days. RADARSAT-1 was a right-looking satellite, meaning that the microwave beam transmits and receives on

1044-406: The spacecraft and ground segment commissioning period was declared on April 27, 2008, after which routine commercial operation started. It has the same orbit (798 km altitude Sun-synchronous orbit with 6 p.m. ascending node and 6 a.m. descending node). Some of the orbit characteristics are 24 days repeat cycle (=343 orbits), 14.29 orbits per day, each orbit being 100.75 minutes duration. It

1080-716: The use of satellites, such as Radarsat-1 and TerraSAR-X . According to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), Earth exploration-satellite service (also: Earth exploration-satellite radiocommunication service ) is – according to Article 1.51 of the ITU Radio Regulations (RR) – defined as: A radiocommunication service between earth stations and one or more space stations , which may include links between space stations, in which: This service may also include feeder links necessary for its operation. This radiocommunication service

1116-478: The volcanic ash cloud from Mount St. Helens and activity from other volcanoes such as Mount Etna . Smoke from fires in the western United States such as Colorado and Utah have also been monitored. Other environmental satellites can assist environmental monitoring by detecting changes in the Earth's vegetation, atmospheric trace gas content, sea state, ocean color, and ice fields. By monitoring vegetation changes over time, droughts can be monitored by comparing

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1152-445: The west 25° each orbit, allowing a different section of the globe to be scanned with each orbit. Most are in Sun-synchronous orbits . A geostationary orbit , at 36,000 km (22,000 mi), allows a satellite to hover over a constant spot on the earth since the orbital period at this altitude is 24 hours. This allows uninterrupted coverage of more than 1/3 of the Earth per satellite, so three satellites, spaced 120° apart, can cover

1188-546: The whole Earth. This type of orbit is mainly used for meteorological satellites . Herman Potočnik explored the idea of using orbiting spacecraft for detailed peaceful and military observation of the ground in his 1928 book, The Problem of Space Travel . He described how the special conditions of space could be useful for scientific experiments. The book described geostationary satellites (first put forward by Konstantin Tsiolkovsky ) and discussed communication between them and

1224-525: Was built by EMS Technologies , with the phased array SAR antenna being built by EMS Montreal. The spacecraft bus was built by Alenia Aerospazio (Italy). The Extensible Support Structure was built by Able Engineering (United States). In June 1994, the Government of Canada approved the Long-Term Space Plan II, which authorized the CSA to develop a follow-on to RADARSAT-1 . MDA was selected as

1260-599: Was conceived in the early 1980s and included discussions with NASA. NASA provided the Delta II launch vehicle to launch RADARSAT-1 and access to the NASA Deep Space Network (NASA DSN) in exchange for access to its data. Estimates are that the project, excluding launch, cost CA$ 620 million. The Canadian federal government contributed about CA$ 500 million, the four participating provinces ( Québec , Ontario , Saskatchewan and British Columbia ) about CA$ 57 million, and

1296-872: Was selected. The difficulties with the US may have been partially caused by the American perception that the sophisticated Canadian-controlled RADARSAT-2 was a threat to US security. The US intelligence agencies opposed the Boeing launch on national security grounds. The subsystems arrived at the David Florida Laboratory (DFL) from 2003 to 2005 for assembly, integration and testing. Work at DFL and CSA preparations at Saint-Hubert, Quebec , were completed in September 2007. RADARSAT-2 arrived at Baikonur Cosmodrome by air on 15 November 2007 and launched on 14 December 2007. The end of

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