RADARSAT-2 for Geospatial Community

Radar research and development continues to evolve into real-world applications. It is now possible to map inter-scene changes at the wavelength or even sub-wavelength scale. Thus C-band radar, with a 6cm wavelength, can potentially quantify changes at the cm level. Because radar imagery penetrates cloud cover, perennially cloud covered areas may be mapped using orthocorrected radar images.

MDA Geospatial Services is a leading provider of Earth observation data, information products and services and exclusive holder of distribution rights to Canada's RADARSAT-1 and RADARSAT-2 synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellites.  The Canadian Space Agency partnered with MDA to develop RADARSAT-2, which is now managed and operated by MDA. 

Launched in 2007, RADARSAT-2 is the world's most advanced commercial C-band SAR satellite that offers new imaging flexibility and a faster turn-around schedule for data acquisition and product delivery. Its capabilities range from high-resolution imaging and fully polarimetric data, to heightened system responsiveness and an impressive on-time imaging capacity (28 minutes/orbit).

The IMAGINE Radar Mapping Suite is a bundle of specialised modules for processing radar data within the ERDAS IMAGINE environment. These modules include IMAGINE Radar Interpreter, IMAGINE OrthoRadar, IMAGINE SAR Interferometry and IMAGINE StereoSAR DEM. IMAGINE Radar Interpreter provides fundamental tools to preprocess radar images or enhance them for visual interpretation, enabling speckle removal and radiometric calibration and terrain correction for radar imagery, and the ability to fuse radar and optical images. IMAGINE OrthoRadar performs precision georeferencing and orthorectification of SAR images, using SAR sensor models, satellite orbit models and digital elevation models (DEMs). IMAGINE SAR Interferometry includes Interferometric SAR (InSAR), which creates accurate, high-resolution DEMs from SAR image pairs, Coherence Change Detection (CCD), which produces georeferenced raster and vector change maps, and Differential Interferometric SAR (D‑InSAR), which enables extremely precise mapping of surface displacement. IMAGINE StereoSAR DEM enables users to extract terrain height information from stereo pairs of RADARSAT data to generate accurate DEMs.

The new agreement is effective immediately and includes the creation of dedicated training material for ERDAS users. In addition, there will be a joint evaluation of existing tools and potentials with regard to interferometric data sets.