Applications potential of RADARSAT-2 - supplement one

Abstract

This report is the first supplement to the report entitled Applications Potential of RADARSAT-2 - A Preview (van der Sanden and Ross, 2001). The document discusses and demonstrates new results from case studies examining the extraction of information from RADARSAT-2 type Synthetic Aperture Radar data for applications in the fields of agriculture, cartography, disaster management, geology, coastal zones and oceans, and sea ice. This includes promising results of limited research into techniques for data fusion and the applicability of products in which RADARSAT-2 type data are fused with data from other remote sensing sources. In addition, the report introduces selected software tools for use with RADARSAT-1 and/or polarimetric SAR data. The results presented contribute to an updated assessment of a) the effect of the most important technical enhancements of RADARSAT-2 on the data information content and b) the applications potential of RADARSAT-2 relative to RADARSAT-1. The applicability of RADARSAT-2 data is anticipated to improve in a major, moderate, and minor fashion for 3, 18, and 10 of the identified applications, respectively. The recommendations emphasize a need for research and development (R&D) leading to an improved understanding of image information content as a function of polarization. This R&D is advised to focus on applications that hold the most promise for operational use of RADARSAT-2 products. The report is based on first-hand experience of applications specialists at the Canada Centre for Remote Sensing (CCRS), the Canadian Ice Service (CIS), MacDonald Dettwiler and Associates (MDA) and the Defence Research Establishment Canada (DRDC) - Ottawa. This report is an output of the RADARSAT-2 Applications Development Programme, which is led by the Canada Centre for Remote Sensing and financed by the Canadian Space Agency with Canadian Space Plan funds.