For the last 15 years, Canada’s RADARSAT-1 has observed the Earth from space.
RADARSAT-1 is a sophisticated Earth observation satellite developed by Canada to monitor environmental changes and the planet’s natural resources.
Launched in November 1995, RADARSAT-1 provides Canada and the world with an operational radar satellite system capable of timely delivery of large amounts of data. Equipped with a powerful synthetic aperture radar (SAR) instrument, it acquires images of the Earth day or night, in all weather and through cloud cover, smoke and haze.
Over time, the satellite has generated an impressive collection of images, some of which were used to produce high-resolution mosaics of areas of interest. These were acquired in relatively short time spans and provide a snapshot in time that can be used for studying terrestrial geology, geomorphology, vegetation, coastal features, wetlands, urbanization and ice dynamics.
Mosaics of Canada, the United States, Africa, Australia and Antarctica were produced.
The mosaics were produced by MacDonald Dettwiler and Associates Ltd (MDA) in collaboration with the Canadian Space Agency and the Canada Centre for Remote Sensing and processed by MDA.
These mosaics are now accessible to the general public and can be viewed at:
http://www.asc-csa.gc.ca/eng/satellites/radarsat1/mosaic.asp
By LD/CSE