Radarsat-2

Radarsat-2

Operator	Canadian Space Agency
Major contractors	MacDonald Dettwiler Geospacial Services
Mission type	Earth observation
Satellite of	Earth
Launch date	14 December 2007
Carrier rocket	Soyuz-FG/Fregat
Homepage	http://www.asc-csa.gc.ca/eng/satellites/radarsat2/
Orbital elements
Regime	SSO

Radarsat-2 is an Earth observation satellite that was successfully launched December 14, 2007 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.

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 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) with 100 m positional accuracy requirement. 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 Technologies Space & Technology/Montreal division was bought by MDA in 2005. Radarsat-2 is owned and operated by MDA;

Kongsberg Satellite Services of Norway, provides ground station services for Radarsat-2 including the provision of data under Canadian Space Agency science programmes.

Radarsat-2 is a follow-on to Radarsat-1. It has the same orbit (798 km altitude sun-synchronous orbit with 6 p.m. ascending node and 6 a.m. descending node). Radarsat-2 is separated by half an orbit period (~50 min) from Radarsat-1 (in terms of ground track it would represent ~12 days ground track separation). It is filling a wide variety of roles, 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, land use mapping, wetlands mapping, topographic mapping.

Data Access Policy and Shutter Control have historically been contentious issues for the Radarsat-2 program, which was to have been originally launched by NASA at Vandenberg Air force Base in exchange for access to data, in a similar arrangement as was negotiated for Radarsat-1. That fell apart in 2001, when Washington expressed concern that hostile countries or groups might purchase high resolution imagery of US facilities and military forces. The dates for the launch slipped to 2003, then 2005, and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) together with MacDonald Dettwiler and Associates (MDA) selected a different launch provider - Starsem. The issue resurfaced in 2008 when US based Defense Contractor Alliant Techsystems attempted to purchase the MDA Space division which would have included the rights to Radarsat-2 data. Canadian members of Parliament tasked with reviewing the conditions of the sale were not given access to an Annex previously agreed to between Canada and the US (bilateral agreement negotiated in 2000), which is believed to have provided provisions to the US to restrain use of the satellite by Canada. This raised the issue of who ultimately has shutter control of the satellite (Canada or the US) and ultimately contributed to the Canadian Government blocking the sale of the MDA Space division to ATK since the deal would not have been of "net benefit" to Canadians.

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) that will enhance the satellites capabilities to detect surface ships. According to MDA, the upgrades will consist of creating new beam mode that will improve maritime vessels detection over a broad area, as well as upgrading the Radarsat-2 ground segment. Two new ground stations for the data reception will be built, one on the east coast at Masstown, N.S., and the other at Aldergrove, B.C. (west coast). These two new stations will mainly be used for the Polar Epsilon project. Canadian stations already located in Gatineau, Que. and Prince Albert, Sask. will be used to receive data in the interim.

See also

• RADARSAT Constellation

External links

• RADARSAT-2 Official Website
• RADARSAT-2 Applications
• RADARSAT-2 Symposium
• Canadian Space Agency Website
• MDA Website
• http://www.ottawacitizen.com/Technology/Coastline+surveillance+boost/1758661/story.html
• Phony space weaponization: the case of Radarsat-2