The RADARSAT programme consists of a pair of remote sensing satellites from the Canadian Space Agency (CSA): RADARSAT-1 and RADARSAT-2
The aim of the RADARSAT missions is provide useful information to both commercial and scientific users in such fields as disaster management, interferometry, agriculture, cartography, hydrology, forestry, oceanography, ice studies and coastal monitoring.
The evolution of the RADARSAT Program, the RCM includes a trio of Earth observation satellites, capable of scanning Earth day or night and in any weather conditions. The three-satellite configuration allows for daily revisits of Canada’s vast territory and maritime approaches, as well as daily access to 90% of the world’s surface and the Arctic up to four times a day.
The constellation model allows for a more frequent revisit of the same area. This opens the door to a range of applications that are based on regular collection of data and creation of composite images that highlight changes in the same area over time. Such applications are particularly useful for monitoring climate change, land use evolution, coastal change, urban subsidence and even human impacts on local environments.