Table of Contents

Environmental monitoring

Monitoring environmentally sensitive areas represents a major application of RADARSAT data, especially when combined with historical radar and optical satellite data.

Because the RADARSAT SAR penetrates heavy cloud cover, many of the world's rain forests and coastal regions can be mapped effectively. RADARSAT can also monitor the extent of marine oil spills, providing vital information for spill control and clean up operations, and have considerable value in settling legal questions related to oil spills.

This RADARSAT image shows salvage operations for the Irving Whale oil spill off the coast
of the Maritimes. The seven ships of the salvage operation are seen as very bright dots,
and three small oil spills are readily identified by their dark tones.