China’s GaoFen-3 Mission: A review

GaoFen-3 (GF-3) is China’s first civilian high-resolution synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellite mission. Operating in the C-band, GF-3 provides full-polarization, high-resolution, and wide-swath imaging for monitoring China’s land and sea. Since its launch in 2016, GF-3 has achieved remarkable success in various SAR application fields, delivering more than 2.79 million images worldwide and providing vital support for China’s Earth observation missions. Following the success of GF-3, the twin satellites GaoFen-3B (GF-3B) and GaoFen-3C (GF-3C) were successfully launched in 2021 and 2022, respectively, and completed their commissioning phase in February 2023. Together, the three satellites form China’s first SAR constellation, enabling more frequent revisits, faster responses, and richer datasets; 2024 marks the eighth year since GF-3’s launch, which is also its designed lifetime. Hence, this is a good moment to comprehensively review China’s first successful civilian SAR mission. In this review, we first introduce key features in the design and operation of the GF-3 SAR system, as well as notable technical breakthroughs. We then thoroughly review the applications of GF-3, including maritime, land, meteorology, natural resources management, and disaster reduction. Finally, we discuss the current status and future outlook of the GF-3 constellation established in 2023. The success of the GF-3 constellation signifies China’s SAR satellite missions are stepping onto a new level and marks the beginning of many more exciting SAR missions.