Space-Based Radar
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Space-based radar refers to space-borne radar systems that may have any of a variety of purposes. A number of earth-observing radar satellites, such as RadarSat, have employed synthetic aperture radar (SAR) to obtain terrain and land-cover information about the earth.
Space-Based Radar (SBR) is a proposed constellation of active radar satellites for the United States Department of Defense. The SBR system would allow detection and tracking of aircraft, ocean-going vessels (similar to the Soviet RORSAT program), and potentially land vehicles from space. This information would then be relayed to regional and national command centers, as well as E-10 MC2A airborne command posts.
Earth-Observing Radars
Earth-observation radars typically are used for study of land-use, climate , and terrain height measurements. They often orbit in sun-synchronous orbits so that diurnal variations of vegetation are ignored, allowing long-term variations to be more accurately measured.
Some of the former and current earth-observing radars are
- Seasat
- RADARSAT-1
- RADARSAT-2
- TOPEX/Poseidon
- Shuttle Imaging Radar (see Shuttle Radar Topography Mission)
- JERS-1
- ERS-1 & ERS-2 (European Remote-Sensing Satellite)
- Envisat
Planetary Radars
Cassini-Huygens radar
Magellan probe radar
Defense Radars
Discoverer II was a proposed military space-based radar program initiated in February 1998 as a joint Air Force, DARPA, and NRO program. The concept was to provide high-range-resolution ground moving target indication (GMTI), as well as SAR imaging and high-resolution digital mapping. This program was cancelled by Congress in 2000. SBR is a less-ambitious version of Discoverer II.
External links
- [Air Force fact sheet]
- [Globalsecurity.org page]
- [Northrop Grumman info sheet]
- ["The Space Based Radar Plan"], John A. Tirpak, Air Force Magazine, August, 2002
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