Future operational spaceborne synthetic aperture radar system considerations

This paper summarises the system design aspects which can be incorporated in a future operational SAR instrument. This instrument will generate high resolution images useful for commercial applications, Earth science, civilian and military applications. The presented baseline concept considers a two frequency, multi-polarised instrument with combined h/w in the central electronics subsystem. Nevertheless, the modular design provides the flexibility to realise a stand alone instrument for each frequency band.