Table of Contents

Background mission

Archiving global radar data

The RADARSAT-1 Background Mission has created an archive of uniform global SAR data using the satellite's multi-mode imaging capabilities.

Apart from commercializing the use of RADARSAT-1 SAR data and meeting specific user needs, the RADARSAT-1 Program has undertaken two important baseline missions. The first is the high-resolution satellite coverage of Antarctica two times during the mission (completed in October 1997 and December 2000). The second is the ongoing Background Mission, which, since 1996, has generated multiple data acquisitions of the Earth's surface using the various imaging modes of the spacecraft.

Beam modes are the RADARSAT advantage

Using the ScanSAR Wide beam with a 500-kilometre-wide imaging swath and 100-metre resolution, the world's continental mass, continental shelves, and polar caps were imaged in 1997 as part of the Background Mission.

A second coverage using the ScanSAR Narrow beam with a 300-kilometre-wide imaging swath and 50-metre resolution was done during different seasons from those of the first coverage. 

Creating mosaics

The ability of RADARSAT-1 to capture seasonal overviews, is especially useful for environmental change detection, regional-scale mapping, and ice and ocean monitoring.

No matter how small or how remote

In addition to imaging continental masses with various RADARSAT-1 beam modes, multiple Background Mission imaging campaigns from 1996 to 2001 have covered over 50 oceanic islands, from the Arctic to the sub-Arctic, mid-latitudes, and Antarctic regions. Because of their size and remoteness, these islands are often ignored in Global Earth System studies. RADARSAT, with its on-board recorder, various imaging modes, swath widths and resolution, offered a unique opportunity to acquire remote sensing data of the islands. Thus, the Background Mission provided an archive of multi-step imagery to observe seasonal changes on the islands.

The Background Mission has also acquired Fine beam images (10-metre resolution) of the world's major and capital cities from 1998, and over 170 cities have been imaged.

Disaster response efforts and research

Currently, the RADARSAT-1 extended Background Mission provides ongoing coverage of the Arctic Basin and the world's major deltas. The data will help in understanding the effects of global warming and other environmental phenomena.

Special coverage helps monitor natural disasters under the Canadian Space Agency's Disaster Watch program and the International Charter "Space and Major Disasters." In fact, the RADARSAT-1 image archives are regularly used as a reference because they show an area's state prior to the occurrence of a disaster.

Contact 

For more information, please contact:

Dr. Ahmed Mahmood
Manager, Missions
Executive Secretariat, International Charter "Space and Major Disasters"
Satellite Operations
Canadian Space Agency
6767 Route de l'Aéroport
Longueuil, Quebec  J3Y 8Y9
Telephone: 450-926-4432
Fax: 450-926-4433
E-mail: ahmed.mahmood@asc-csa.gc.ca