IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Magazine - March 2013 - 9

Table 2. OVERVIEW OF SPACEBORNE SAR SENSORS AND THEIR MAIN CHARACTERISTICS [22].

Sensor

Operation

Frequency Band
(Polarization)

Seasat

1978

L (HH)

First civilian SAR satellite, operation for
only ca. three months

NASA/JPL, USA

ERS-1/2

1991-2000/
1995-2011

C (VV)

European Remote Sensing Satellites
(first European SAR satellites)

ESA, Europe

J-ERS-1

1992-1998

L (HH)

Japanese Earth Resource Satellite
(first Japanese SAR satellite)

JAXA, Japan

SIR-C/ X-SAR

April and October 1994

L & C (quad)
X (VV)

Shuttle imaging radar mission,
first demonstration of spaceborne
multi-frequency SAR

NASA/JPL, USA
DLR, Germany
ASI, Italy

Radarsat-1

1995-today

C (HH)

First Canadian SAR satellite, swath width of
up to 500 km with ScanSAR imaging mode

CSA, Canada

SRTM

Feb. 2000

C (HH+VV) and
X (VV)

Shuttle Radar Topography Mission, first
spaceborne interferometric SAR

NASA/JPL, USA
DLR, Germany
ASI, Italy

ENVISAT/ ASAR

2002-2012

C (dual)

First SAR satellite with Transmit/Receive
module technology, swath width up to
400 km

ESA, Europe

ALOS/PalSAR

2006-2011

L (quad)

Advanced Land Observing Satellite
(Daichi), swath width up to 360 km

JAXA, Japan

TerraSAR-X/
TanDEM-X

2007-today
2010-today

X (quad)

First bi-static radar in space, resolution up
to 1 m, global topography available by end
of 2014

DLR/Astrium,
Germany

Radarsat-2

2007-today

C (quad)

Resolution up to: 1 m # 3 m (azimuth #
range), swath width up to 500 km

CSA, Canada

COSMO-SkyMed-1/4

2007 ... 2010-today

X (dual)

Constellation of four satellites, up to 1 m
resolution

ASI/MiD, Italy

RISAT-1

2012-today

C (quad)

Follow-on satellite (RISAT-1a) to be
launched in 2016, RISAT-3 (L-band) in
development

ISRO, India

HJ-1C

2012-today

S (VV)

Constellation of four satellites, first satellite
launched in 2012

CRESDA/CAST/
NRSCC, China

Kompsat-5

Launch scheduled in 2013

X (dual)

Korea Multi-Purpose Satellite 5, resolution
up to 1 m

KARI, Korea

PAZ

Launch scheduled in 2013

X (quad)

Constellation with TerraSAR-X and
TanDEM-X planned

CDTI, Spain

ALOS-2

Launch scheduled in 2013

L (quad)

Resolution up to: 1 m # 3 m (azimuth #
range), swath width up to 490 km

JAXA, Japan

Sentinel-1a/1b

Launch scheduled in
2013/2015

C (dual)

Constellation of two satellites, swath
width up to 400 km

ESA, Europe

Radarsat Constellation-1/2/3

Launch scheduled in 2017

C (quad)

Constellation of three satellites, swath
width up to 500 km

CSA, Canada

SAOCOM-1/2

Launch scheduled in
2014/2015

L (quad)

Constellation of two satellites, fully
polarimetric

CONAE, Argentina

combination of the received signals allows the construction of a virtual aperture that is much longer than the
physical antenna length. This basic attribute of SAR is
the origin of its name "synthetic aperture," giving it the
property of being an imaging radar. In the case of SAR
the radar image results from processing the raw data (i.e.,
after forming the synthetic aperture) and represents a
measure of the scene reflectivity. The following section
gives a brief overview of SAR, introducing the theory necessary for the following chapters. The intention here is to
give an easy understanding of the subject and to avoid
detailed descriptions and derivations for which interested
march 2013

ieee Geoscience and remote sensing magazine

Comments

Institution,
Country

readers are referred to a wealth of publications on SAR
[1]-[9], [23]. In particular, the tutorial paper by Tomiyasu
[4] gives a very comprehensive view about the SAR principle and image formation.
SAR sensors commonly utilize frequency modulated
pulsed waveforms for transmission, the so-called chirp signals. The amplitude of the transmitted waveform is constant
during the pulse time x, while the instantaneous frequency
is varied in a linear manner over time t according to fi = k r $ t
where k r is known as the chirp rate, yielding the bandwidth
B r = k r x. This is followed by the echo window time during
which the radar "listens" to the scattered echoes and stores
9



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