CV - 580 Airborne-SAR, Canada


The C/X-SAR can provide imagery of all classes of terrain, ocean, or ice 
scenes. The imagery can be compared easily with mapped information. It is 
possible to monitor natural resources (agriculture, forestry, geology), 
temporal variations (urban growth, sea ice and icebergs, ocean waves and 
currents, shipping and fishing), and disasters (oil spills, floods, fires).
CCRS Convair 580 is a fully equipped, versatile aircraft for remote sensing. 
The aircraft can be deployed from any airport with a 1520-m (5000-foot) 
hard-surface runway. It has a range of 2300 km (1450 miles), or about five 
hours of flying time.
    
The C-SAR data provides an opportunity for educational studies relating to SAR.

NOTE - THIS IS COMPLEX DATA. For radar systems, this implies that the 
representation of a signal or data file contains both magnitude and phase 
measures. Many viewers will not accommodate this data type. There is a .tiff 
format composite preview available with the images that can be downloaded.

The first group consists of a "*sso.img" and "*sso.img_def" file. The "*sso.img" 
file contains the 16 element stokes scattering matrix values for each pixel. 
Each element is stored as a floating point value using 32 bits. The "*sso.img_def" 
text file describes the "*sso.img" file. The image size is recorded in 
"number of pixels" and "number of lines". The band order is specified in 
"data organization". This file also gives the georeferencing data. The top 
left corner is found by adding "project origin" and "file start". The 
co-ordinates are in the projection given in "map projection". The ground 
pixel spacing is given by "pixel size on ground".

The second group of files is created by converting the "*sso.img" file 
into the four files "*hhsso.img", "*hvsso.img", "*vhsso.img", and "*vvsso.img". 
Only the relative phase of each pixel is maintained in this process so the 
phase of the HH image is set to zero. Each "*.img" file has an associated 
"*.hdr" text file which provides the number of lines and samples. The four 
polarization files are complex float32 data in (I,Q) pairs.

The final group is one or more "*.tif" files which provide a magnitude 
image of the coverage area. The three channels (Red, Green, Blue) are (HH,HV,VH).

All of these products are resampled from the full resolution post-processed 
and calibrated data which is not available on geogratis. The raw data is 
nearly 10 times larger and not georeferenced.

The synthetic aperture radar (SAR) is in service on board a Convair 580 
aircraft. Operating C band, the C-SAR is a sensor developed for use by the 
research and development community.

The radar is capable of mapping in three operating modes: nadir, narrow 
and wide swath. The aircraft altitude is variable, but 6 km (20,000 ft) 
is optimum. At this altitude the high-resolution (6m x 6m) imagery can be 
gathered over depression angles from 16 degrees to 90 degrees (nadir mode), 
or 14 degrees to 45 degrees (narrow swath). Nadir mode is useful in terrain 
of high relief or for simulation of satellite SAR geometry. Lower resolution 
(20m x 10m) imagery can be obtained over a wide swath of about 63 km, for 
maximum ground coverage, with depression angles varying from 5 degrees to 
45 degrees.

Users with technical questions related to the performance and capabilities 
of the SAR are asked to direct questions to Bob Hawkins at Canada Centre for 
Remote Sensing (CCRS).

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RSO aéroporté du CV-580, Canada


N.B. Ce sont des données complexes et plusieurs afficheurs ne sont pas 
adaptés pour ce type de données. Les représentations de fichier de données 
ou de signal incluent les mesures de phase et de magnitude pour les systèmes 
de radar.

Le radar à synthèse d'ouverture (RSO) est exploité à bord d'un avion Convair 
580. Fonctionnant dans les bandes C et X, le C/X-SAR est un capteur mis au 
point pour effectuer des travaux de recherche et de développement.

Le radar peut cartographier dans trois modes : nadir, couloir étroit, couloir 
large. L'altitude de l'avion est variable, mais l'altitude optimale est de 6 km 
(20 000 pieds). À cette altitude, on peut obtenir des images haute résolution 
(6 m x 6 m) pour des angles de dépression compris entre 16 ° et 90 ° (mode couloir 
étroit). Le mode nadir est utile lorsque le relief est accidenté ou pour simuler 
la géométrie des systèmes ROS embarqués sur satellite. On peut également obtenir 
des images faible résolution (20 m x 10 m) sur un large couloir d'environ 63 km, 
ce qui maximise la couverture au sol, avec des angles de dépression allant de 
5 ° à 45 °.

Les utilisateurs qui ont des question techniques sur la performance et les 
possibilités du système RSO seront orientés vers les spécialistes appropriés 
au CCT. De plus, tous les utilisateurs des produits RSO pourront consulter des 
données enregistrées dans un SIG afin de vérifier si les régions qui les 
intéressent ont déjà été imagée par RSO. Les données sont disponibles contre frais.
    
Le C-RSO présente l'occasion de poursuivre des études éducative relié au RSO.