The RADARSAT-2/3 topographic mission

The RADARSAT-2 Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) satellite currently under development is jointly funded by the Canadian government and MacDonald Dettwiler. RADARSAT-2 will further Canada's world-leading position in the world of synthetic aperture radar Earth observation, and provide an enormous opportunity for growth in technical expertise and environmental, agricultural, and commercial applications. Plans are now in preparation for the development of a RADARSAT-3 satellite to be operated interferometrically in tandem with RADARSAT-2 to provide very high precision global topographical data. This paper will describe the mission concept, explain the key characteristics of the two satellites, and discuss some of the design and operational issues which have been studied The system concept potentially includes both Bistatic and "Pursuit Monostatic" operation of the two radars, and both options will be described.