SURVEILLANCE AND INTELLIGENCE

RADARSAT CONSTELLATION
MISSION

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 The RADARSAT Constellation Mission (RCM), a constellation of three RCM Modes
C-Band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) satellites, follows the success of To meet its mission objectives, RCM is required to support a wide
RADARSAT-1 and RADARSAT-2. Launches are planned for 2018. variety of imaging modes. These modes range from wide-area
Mission Objectives surveillance with 500-kilometer imaging swaths to spotlight modes
MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates Ltd. (MDA), the mission’s prime with resolution of 1 meter in azimuth and 3 meters in range, as well as
contractor, started developing RCM’s payload and ground segment a large number of modes between these extremes.
in 2005. Major subcontractors are Bristol Aerospace, responsible for Furthermore, RCM will have a full set of multipolarization capabilities.
the bus, and COM DEV, which is developing the payload’s central Like RADARSAT-2, RCM will support single, dual and quad-polarization
electronics. capabilities. In addition, RCM will provide a new multipolarization
The mission objectives are to provide C-band SAR data continuity capability called Compact Polarization.
to existing RADARSAT users and to enhance operational use of RCM Imaging Capacity
C-band SAR data for maritime surveillance, disaster management and The Canadian Government has requirements for daily imaging
environmental monitoring. coverage of large areas off Canada’s coasts. With three satellites with
Maritime surveillance includes ship detection, ice monitoring, oil wide-swath imaging, it will be possible to collect images covering all of
pollution monitoring and marine wind measurement. RCM’s primary these maritime areas of interest daily. There are additional government
requirements for maritime surveillance are over large areas up to requirements for covering Canada’s land mass on a weekly basis. Only
2,200 kilometers off Canada’s coasts. Disaster management includes a constellation can meet all these coverage requirements.
disaster mitigation, warning, response and recovery. RCM will support The imaging capacity of individual satellites in the constellation has
disaster management by providing global access and rapid revisit with been sized to exceed all the Canadian government imaging needs by a
a wide variety of imaging capabilities. Ecosystem monitoring includes factor of two. Thus, the constellation has the ability to frequently image
monitoring forestry, protected areas and wildlife habitat; agriculture; large areas anywhere on the globe.
wetlands; and coastal change.
Innovative Capabilities
RCM’s mission configuration of three spacecraft and unique imaging
modes will allow the constellation to address future requirements with
RCM has a wide variety of imaging modes, ranging from greater flexibility.
wide-area surveillance with a 500-kilometer swath to spotlight Satellite
mode with 1- x 3-meter resolution. Velocity Application-Specific Imaging
Vector
Modes
RCM is required to support a
wide variety of applications. In
Sub-satellite cases where a particular image is
Ground Track
(Nadir)
acquired for one purpose, such
as ship detection, it makes sense
to design imaging modes that
are optimized for that purpose.
19º In other cases, images may be
185 35º
required for multiple applications,
km 175
km such as ship detection and ice
175
500
km
km 53º monitoring. In those cases,
100
general-purpose imaging modes
km
Low Resolution Medium Resolution High Resolution suitable for multiple applications
100m Mode Medium Resolution 30m Mode Medium Resolution 5m Mode Very High Resolution
50m Mode 16m Mode 3m Mode are needed. Thus, the RCM
Low Noise/ Quad-Pol Mode Spotlight Mode
design includes application-
Ship Detection Mode
10870-1R3
specific and general-purpose

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 and rapid image delivery (10 minutes from downlink to delivery). To
meet the 5-hour commanding timeline requires northern ground
stations that see the satellites on every orbit. Real-time downlink requires
ground station masks covering areas of interest. Finally, 10 minutes from
downlink to product delivery requires near-real-time SAR processing.
Compact Polarization
RADARSAT-2 can transmit and receive any combination of horizontal
or vertical linear polarizations. RCM will have an additional capability
to transmit circular polarization. Using this, in Compact Polarimetric
mode, the system will transmit circular polarization and receive dual
linear H and V polarization. This mode is designed to provide many
of the advantages of quad-pol, without the disadvantage inherent
in quad-pol, which is reduced swath width. RCM will be the first
SAR satellite system in the world to implement this type of Compact
Polarimetric mode.
Expanding Capabilities
RCM is part of the trend in satellite remote sensing toward smaller
satellites that are interoperable, powerful, robust and flexible. An increased
number of satellites will bring increased revisit and support a broad
RADARSAT-2 Data and Products © MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates Ltd. 2009 – All Rights Reserved. RADARSAT is an official mark of the Canadian
Space Agency. number of new applications. Most importantly, the program represents
RADARSAT-2 ScanSar Wide image of Antarctica was acquired by the satellite on a significant new capability for maritime domain awareness, arctic
September 7, 2009. surveillance, multipolarization imaging and broad-area change detection.
imaging modes. Application-specific imaging modes include modes
optimized for ship detection, ice monitoring and land applications.
Coherent Change Detection
Change detection can be achieved by performing a technique called
interferometry between images acquired over the same areas at
different times. Applications include subsidence detection, glacier
motion studies, evaluation of faults before and after earthquakes, and
detection of change related to construction or vehicle movement.
RCM is designed to support coherent change detection (CCD), which
offers the possibility to detect extremely small changes between image
takes. For CCD to work well, images must be acquired with as near to
identical imaging geometry as possible. For this, the mission requires
the satellites to be flown in tightly controlled orbital tubes (tube radius
of 100 meters) with a tightly controlled satellite altitude. Using CCD for
subsidence measurements, ground movements on millimeter scales
will be detectable.
Fast Tasking and Rapid Delivery of Images
Several RCM applications are time-critical. Thus, special attention is given
RADARSAT-2 Data and Products © MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates Ltd. 2009 – All Rights Reserved. RADARSAT is an official mark of the Canadian
to the delivery timelines for the imagery and subsequent information Space Agency.

products. RCM has been designed to support rapid tasking of the RADARSAT-2 Fine quad pol image of the Antarctica was acquired by the satellite on
satellites (5 hours from order to command uplink), real-time downlinks September 16, 2009.

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 RADARSAT-2 RADARSAT Constellation
H

H
V V

Ci
rc
ul
ar

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RADARSAT-2 is a fully polarimetric system, providing all combinations of H and V polarization on both transmit and receive. Like
RADARSAT-2, RCM is a fully polarimetric system. RCM will also support compact polarization by transmitting circular polarization
and receiving dual linear polarization.

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RADARSAT-2 Data and Products © MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates Ltd 2014 –
All Rights Reserved. RADARSAT is an official mark of the Canadian Space Agency.

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