Weather-proof satellite capable of imaging any spot on Earth

Surrey Satellite Technology Limited (SSTL) has combined an adapted version of its SSTL-300 satellite, plus S-band SAR payload developed with Astrium, to create the 400kg NovaSAR-S system.

‘Based on highly efficient S-band solid-state amplifier technology, NovaSAR-S has been designed to provide detailed imaging performance for a variety of orbits,’ said Luis Gomes of SSTL. ‘It offers space-based radar capability to customers who might not have considered it possible — all for the equivalent cost of a traditional low-cost optical Earth observation mission.’

Radar images reveal surface textures instead of reflected light and they achieve this by illuminating its target with a microwave beam, then recording the signal bouncing back.

NovaSAR-S will acquire medium-resolution radar imagery of 6–30m ground sample distances, depending on the viewing mode being employed.

Its four viewing modes are said to be optimised for a range of applications, including flood monitoring, agricultural crop assessment, forest monitoring, land cover classification, disaster management and maritime applications, notably ship tracking and oil spill detection.