RADARSAT Constellation Mission ISRSE-37

S t e v e I r i s M i s s i o n M a n a g e r

RADARSAT Constellation Mission

• RCM is the evolution of the RADARSAT program with the objectives to:

Ensure data continuity

Enhance use of SAR data

Improve system reliability

• RCM is government-owned, tailored to respond to the Canadian Government service delivery, namely in the areas of:

Maritime surveillance

Disaster management

Ecosystem monitoring

RCM Mission Facts

• Constellation of 3 satellites, evenly spaced on same orbital plane

• 600 km / sun-synchronous orbit

• Orbit maintained within 100 m orbital tube

• 96.4 minutes orbital period

• 12 days repeat cycle per satellite (4 days for constellation)

• SAR Duty cycle: 15 minutes of imaging time per orbit on average outside eclipse season

• Payloads: C-Band SAR – 5.405 GHz

Automatic Identification System (AIS)

• 7 years design life

RCM Improvements over previous RADARSAT missions

Daily coverage with RADARSAT-2 Canadian AOI: 4 days required to

complete coverage

Future daily coverage with RCM

Canadian maritime AOI: Complete

average daily coverage

• Daily revisit of any point over Canada

• Capability to potentially access any point on the Earth (except around the South Pole)

• 4-day exact repeat (as opposed to 24 days with RADARSAT-1 and 2) for Coherent Change Detection

• Circular Compact Polarization for better detection, measurement, and discrimination of surface features and characteristics.

• Secondary payload on board - Automatic Identification System (AIS) for ship detection and identification

SAR Imaging Modes

Automatic Identification System (AIS)

Arctic Vessel Positions: July-October, 2011

• Each RCM satellite will include a receiver for AIS transmissions from vessels.

• Navies, port authorities, civilian ships, coast guards, and other marine authorities use AIS data for tracking and to enhance maritime situational awareness.

• Using AIS in conjunction with radar data will allow improved detection and tracking of vessels of interest.

Space-Based AIS allows detection of vessels beyond coastal range or terrestrial antennas!

© ExactEarth

© ExactEarth

• AIS is a National Defence sensor with access limited to the Government of Canada and their partners.

Projected Timelines

Q3 2018

Commissioning (up to 3-6 months)

Launch

Operations

Q1/Q2 2017

Completion of Ground

Segment

RCM Routine Data Collection

Q4 2018

Progressing Towards RCM Launch and Operations!

Satellites Assembly,

Integration and Test

Project Status

• Assembly and integration of the first spacecraft was completed in January 2017. The test campaign started in February and is expected to be completed by January 2018.

• Spacecraft 2 and 3 assembly integration and test are expected to be completed in March and May 2018 respectively

• The ground segment subsystems (8 contractor and 10 government-supplied elements) are all in various stages of construction and will be completed and accepted sequentially. This began in November 2016 and will continue through June 2017.

• New multi-mission antennas have been delivered and installed in Gatineau, Prince Albert and Inuvik and are operating nominally (under responsibility of Natural Resources Canada).

• The launch of all three spacecraft is planned for Q3 2018 aboard a single Falcon 9 launch vehicle from Vandenberg, California.

RCM Pictures

© Canadian Space Agency, 2017/ © Agence spatiale canadienne, 2017

1st RCM spacecraft being prepared for travel RCM spacecraft #1 being prepared for testing

SAR Data Policy

• RCM will be tasked, first and foremost, by the Government of Canada to acquire data in support of its priorities.

• Ownership: The GC retains ownership of all RCM Data.

• RCM will operate under licence issued as per Remote Sensing Space System Act (RSSSA)

Licence is under development. It will set conditions for various type of users for access to RCM Data.

• In the spirit of the Directive on Open Government, the GC intends to make data available to the broadest extent possible under certain conditions still to be defined within limitation of the RSSSA

• The RCM SAR Data Policy is currently in development

• Target timeframe to complete Data Policy is one year prior to RCM launch (Summer 2017)

Standard Coverages

• Being primarily designed for Government of Canada “operational purposes”, the RCM will systematically and recurrently image large areas in support of specific requirements

Predominantly over the Canadian Area of Interest (AOI)

Designed to offer consistent and predictable SAR coverage

long-term data archive built for exploitation of information based on long time series

• Standard Coverages consist of pre-defined and pre-planned data acquisitions plans that are based on a common set of parameters such as imaging modes, recurrence, geographic areas, period, time constraints and priorities

• Standard coverage plans are expected to be published on-line weeks/months ahead of acquisition (unless restricted for security reason)

Coordinated Demand

Optimized Planning

Maximized use of RCM

RCM Potential Coverage June - Canadian AOI

Medium Resolution 50m Mode*

*Low Noise mode could be used instead of Med Res 50m for part of the area.

It cannot be guaranteed at this time that all of the coverages shown here will be made available to non-Gov. of Canada

users

Daily

Weekly

Monthly

Medium Resolution 30m Mode*

Low Noise Mode

Medium Resolution 50m Mode

*Regions close to water are in conflict with daily maritime coverages using 50m mode. Coverage TBD.

Medium Resolution 50m Mode

Medium Resolution 16m Mode

Approximate coverages represented – subject to change

Ice & Icebergs

Ice data Assimilation

Ice Dynamics

Integrated Satellite

Tracking of Pollution (ISTOP)

National SAR Winds

Wind Data Assimilation

Arctic Coastline

Wetland monitoring

Land Surface & Water Extent

Ice Oil Winds Ecosystem Land

RCM Data Fully Integrated in Government of Canada Service Delivery

Agriculture Security & Defence Monitoring Emergency Products R&D

Crop Inventory

Soil Moisture

Ocean Features

INSAR

Hazards Deformation

Infrastructure Glacier

Emergency Geomatics

Service

Value Added

Products

Filtered Orthorectified Pol. Decomp.

Compact Pol CCD

Geohazards Wetlands Security & Defence

Maritime Surveillance

Land Surveillance

Ecosystem

• RCM to be used for various ecosystem assessment and monitoring purposes important to Environment Canada’s mandate including: wetland classification and mapping, arctic shoreline characterization, mapping, and change monitoring as well as critical habitat mapping.

• To support Government of Canada priorities: National Conservation Plan Canada’s northern regions Responsible and sustainable resource

development World class tanker safety - arctic

marine transportation corridors Species at risk critical habitat

identification (moving beyond current optical based landcover mapping methods)

Photo credit: Travel Alberta

Soil Moisture

• Works ongoing to leverage existing research efforts to derive soil moisture information from RADARSAT-2 to RCM

• Derive soil moisture information from

RCM data expected to improve: flood forecasts; administration of water

infrastructure to manage floods and supply water for irrigation and rural communities;

crop yield forecasting and; Monitoring of excess moisture,

floods and droughts for agri-risk and other farm program response.

“RADARSAT-2 Surface Soil Moisture” product available on open.canada.ca

website

Surface Water Extent

• Support the mandate to preserve and enhance the quality of the natural environment.

• Will help to conserve and protect Canada's water resources, and provide guidance related to meteorology.

• The greatly improved operational capabilities afforded by the RCM will enhance the monitoring of surface water extent.

Water polygons in red derived automatically from RADARSAT-2 data

Shoreline Identification and Coastal Changes Mapping

• RCM data to improve charting and surveying resulting in a more efficient system to generate navigational corridor within Canadian Hydrographic Service.

• RCM data to be used for characterizing, classifying and mapping shoreline and intertidal zones

• Support Government of Canada’s

Northern Strategy to improve navigational products and services in the Arctic to support northern development.

Climate Change Adaptation

• RCM data expected to further understand projected climate change risks and inform adaptation decisions :

Assess risks from permafrost thaw slump, flooding, etc.

Monitor and predict the effects of permafrost subsidence and upheaval

Develop hazard maps for communities

Identify potential impacts on communities and heritage sites

Inform and strategically target mitigation efforts

Iqaluit Airport – RADARSAT-2 data used to monitor ground movement

RCM Simulated Products

• Simulated RCM products are made available to help users become familiar with the new format and adapt their processing chains accordingly.

• The simulated RCM products are derived from RADARSAT-2.

• A number of simulated products representing different acquisition modes can be found on the CSA's website.

Example of RADARSAT Constellation Mission (RCM) simulated

data (16 m Dual Polarization VV/VH) over Vancouver, British

Columbia. (Credit: RCM Simulated Data Derived from

RADARSAT-2 Data and Products © MacDonald, Dettwiler and

Associates Ltd. (2008) – All Rights Reserved. RADARSAT is an

official trademark of the Canadian Space Agency.)

http://asc-csa.gc.ca/eng/satellites/radarsat/

Questions on RCM

asc.mcr-info-rcm-info.csa@canada.ca

Image Products

Variety of processing levels

• single-look complex products (SLC); equivalent to a SLC product for RADARSAT-1 or RADARSAT-2.

• multi-looked power-detected geo-referenced products (GRD, GRC); equivalent to an SGX, SCN or SCW product for RADARSAT-1 or RADARSAT-2.

• geo-coded products (GCD, GCC); equivalent to an SSG or SPG product for RADARSAT-1 or RADARSAT-2.

Optionally includes a “Doppler Grid” with 2 km spacing

Same format as RADARSAT-2: GeoTIFF images with XML meta-data + NITF 2.1 format.

GCC = GeoCoded Complex GCD = GeoCoded Detected GRC = Ground range georeferenced Complex GRD = Ground range georeferenced Detected

SAR Image Products

Mode Details

Modes

Nominal

Resolution

m

Number

of Looks

for

detected

products

rng x az

Nominal

Swath

Width

(accessible)

km

Nominal

NESZ

dB

Polarization Options Product Options

Single

Pol

(HH, VV,

HV or

VH)

Dual Pol Com-

pact

Pol

Quad

Pol

(HH+VV

+

HV+VH)

Fixed point

(16-bit)

Floating point

(32-bit)

(HH+HV

or

VV+VH)

HH+VV2 SLC GRD GRC GCD GCC SLC GRD GRC

Low Resolution 100m 100 8x1 500 (500) -22

Medium Resolution 50m 50 4x1 350 (500) -22

Medium Resolution 30m 30 2x2 125 (350) -24

Medium Resolution 16m 16 1x4 30 (350) -25

High Resolution 5m 5 1 30 (500) -19

Very High Resolution 3m 3 @35o 1 20 (500) -17

Low Noise 100 4x2 350 (500) -25

Ship Detection variable 5x1 350 (350) variable

Quad-Polarization1 9 1 20 (250) -24

Spotlight

1 (az) x

3 (grd)

@35o

1 20 (350)

[5km in az] -17

1) There are no performance requirements for the quad-polarization mode: expected performance is shown. 2) Some performance parameters will be degraded for the HH+VV polarization: swath width is reduced to 250km for the Low Resolution 100m mode and 175km for the Medium Resolution 50m mode; number of looks in azimuth is reduced to one for the Medium Resolution 30m mode and two for the Medium Resolution 16m mode; azimuth resolution is degraded to 10m for the High Resolution 5m mode and to 6m to 8m for the Very High Resolution 3m mode. Complex products (SLC, GRC or GCC) are not available for the HH+VV polarization.

x

Downlink of Raw Data

Satellite Acquisition

Reception at Ground Station

Processing of Raw Data

Processed RCM Images

Order Handling System

Raw Processed

Archive

Earth Observation

Data Management

System (FGP-EODMS)

+

RCM Processor

New and

Archive Orders

New and

Archive Orders

RCM SAR Data Flow

Catalogue

SAR

Image Products

FGP-EODMS Users

Archive Processed

Image Products

Raw Data Archiving

and Retrieval

Near Real-Time: Max. 30 mins

Standard: Max. 24 Hrs

Between 15 mins

and 24 hrs