Radarsat-2

RADARSAT-2 is an Earth observation satellite that was successfully launched December 14, 2007[1][2][3] for the Canadian Space Agency by Starsem, using a Soyuz FG launch vehicle, from Kazakhstan's Baikonur Cosmodrome. RADARSAT-2 was previously assembled, integrated and tested at the David Florida Laboratory near Ottawa, Ontario before the start of its launch campaign.

RADARSAT-2
Mission typeRadar imaging
OperatorMacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates
COSPAR ID2007-061A
SATCAT no.32382
Websitemdacorporation.com/geospatial/international/satellites/RADARSAT-2 Canadian Space Agency project site
Mission durationdesigned life: 7.25 years
Elapsed: 12 years, 7 months, 29 days
Spacecraft properties
BusPrima
ManufacturerMDA
Thales Alenia Space- Italy (TAS-I)
Launch mass2,300 kg (5,100 lb)
Start of mission
Launch date14 December 2007, 13:17:34 (2007-12-14UTC13:17:34Z) UTC
RocketSoyuz-FG/Fregat
Launch siteBaikonur 31/6
ContractorStarsem
Orbital parameters
Reference systemGeocentric
RegimeSun-synchronous
 

The end of the spacecraft and ground segment commissioning period was declared on April 27, 2008 after which routine commercial operation started. The satellite has a C-band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) with multiple polarization modes, including a fully polarimetric mode in which HH, HV, VV and VH polarized data are acquired. Its highest resolution is 1 m in Spotlight mode (3 m in Ultra Fine mode). In ScanSAR Wide Beam mode the SAR has a nominal swath width of 500 km and an imaging resolution of 100 m. Its left looking capability allows the spacecraft the unique capability to image the Antarctic on a routine basis providing data in support of scientific research.

The prime contractor on the project is MacDonald Dettwiler and Associates (MDA), who have previously built projects such as the Canadarm. Other collaborating companies included EMS Technologies and Alenia. EMS Space & Technology/Montreal division was bought by MDA in 2005. RADARSAT-2 is owned and operated by MDA.

RADARSAT-2 is a follow-on to RADARSAT-1 which mission terminated in April 2013. It has the same orbit (798 km altitude sun-synchronous orbit with 6 p.m. ascending node and 6 a.m. descending node). Some of the orbit characteristics are 24 days repeat cycle (=343 orbits), 14.29 orbits per day, each orbit being 100.75 minutes duration. It is filling a wide variety of application, including sea ice mapping and ship routing, iceberg detection, agricultural crop monitoring, marine surveillance for ship and pollution detection, terrestrial defence surveillance and target identification, geological mapping, mine monitoring, land use mapping, wetlands mapping, topographic mapping.

On 4 July 2009, Canada's Department of National Defence announced their intention to increase RADARSAT-2 usage for surveillance of Canada's coastlines and the Arctic. To carry out this new project, the satellite's owner MacDonald Dettwiler and Associates (MDA) of Richmond, B.C., was awarded $25-million contract to carry out upgrades (called project Polar Epsilon) to enhance the satellites capabilities to detect surface ships. The upgrades consisted of creating new beam mode (OSVN and DVWF) that target improvements in maritime vessels detection over a broad area, as well as upgrading the RADARSAT-2 ground segment to improve conflict resolution with other government users. Two new ground stations for the data reception have been built, one on the east coast at Masstown, N.S., and the other at Aldergrove, B.C. (west coast). These two new stations are mainly used for the Polar Epsilon project.[4]

By mid-August 2015, the addition of the Canada Centre for Mapping and Earth Observation (CCMEO) X Band receiving station in Inuvik has significantly increased RADARSAT-2 downlink capacity in Canada. The network of ground receiving station continues to expand with 19 partners organization using 53 antennas at various reception sites (as of Jun 2020).

As of January 2020, RADARSAT-2 is entering its 12th operational service year. Numerous enhancements have been added to the original capabilities both on the ground and on the space segments. The operational performance is well within the specification with an acquisition success rate above 97% (Acquisition successfully executed Vs Acquisition loaded on the Spacecraft for execution) and a percentage of availability of 99.95% (hours of outage Vs total hours in a year). The usage of SAR data have been steadily growing from an average of 3.5 minutes per orbit in 2008 to an average of 11.57 minutes per orbit in 2019. On July 15, 2020, MDA has provided the full extend of the original Government of Canada data allocation in exchange for the government’s financial contribution to the building of the satellite. The Government of Canada remains an important user of RADARSAT-2 data.

See also

References
  1. "Soyuz rocket lifts Canadian radar satellite into space". CBC News. 2007-12-14. Retrieved 2007-12-14.
  2. "RADARSAT-2 has been successfully launched". Archived from the original on 2013-01-28. Retrieved 2007-12-14.
  3. "Successful launch of RADARSAT-2". Archived from the original on 2007-12-16. Retrieved 2007-12-14.
  4. Pugliese, David (July 4, 2009). "Coastline surveillance to get a boost; Radarsat-2 will be able to track day or night, rain or shine". Ottawa Citizen. p. A3. Retrieved November 14, 2018.
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