About RADARSAT-1
Launch:
Status: Inactive
Info open data: Over 710,000 historical RADARSAT-1 satellite images of Earth are available to the public. Learn more about the RADARSAT-1 open data.
RADARSAT-1 provided Canada and the world with an operational radar satellite system capable of timely delivery of large amounts of data. Equipped with a powerful synthetic aperture radar (SAR) microwave instrument, it transmitted and received signals for capturing high-quality images of Earth day or night, in all weather and through cloud cover, smoke and haze.
RADARSAT-1 was a Canadian-led mission involving the Canadian federal government, Canadian provinces, the United States, and the private sector. It provided useful information to both commercial and scientific users in such fields as disaster management, interferometry, agriculture, cartography, hydrology, forestry, oceanography, ice studies and coastal monitoring.
The need for Earth observation data
As the second largest country in the world, with a variety of landscapes and climatic conditions, Canada recognized the practical and economic benefits of using space for Earth observation early on. With global environmental monitoring and protection being a worldwide concern, Earth observation was and remains a key priority of the Canadian space program, and RADARSAT-1 was developed as Canada's flagship to pursue this priority.
RADARSAT-1 has proven to be an invaluable source of Earth observation data. The satellite's images were used internationally to manage and monitor Earth's resources and to monitor global climate change, as well as in many other commercial and scientific applications. RADARSAT-1 was ideally suited to supporting these tasks because of its wide range of beams, SAR technology, frequent revisit period, high-quality products and fast, efficient delivery.
Canada is now a world leader in the processing of satellite remote sensing data, thanks in part to RADARSAT-1.
Components and specifications
Text version - Components and specifications of the RADARSAT-1
Components and specifications of the RADARSAT-1
- Solar Array
- Solar Array Tie-Downs
- Battery Radiator
- Zenith S-Band
- Bus Module
- Solar Array
- Payload Module
- Nadir S-Band Antenna
- X-Band Antenna
- SAR Antenna Tie-Downs
- SAR Antenna
- Extendible Support Structure
RADARSAT-1's principal components. (Credit: Canadian Space Agency)
As an active sensor, RADARSAT-1's SAR transmitted a microwave energy pulse (C-band at 5.3 GHz frequency) to Earth, and the SAR measured the amount of energy reflected back to the satellite from Earth's surface. RADARSAT-1 could acquire up to 28 minutes of data for each 100.7-minute orbit. The acquired images could be downlinked in real time to ground receiving stations or stored on the onboard magnetic tape recorder until RADARSAT-1 was within range of a receiving station. In critical situations, data could be processed and delivered within 4 hours of acquisition.
For detailed technical information on RADARSAT-1, please consult the technical comparison page on RADARSAT satellites.