The RADARSAT Constellation Mission in Support of Environmental Applications

The RADARSAT Constellation Mission (RCM) is a future Canadian spaceborne Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) mission, with the purpose of supporting the operational use of SAR imagery for different Earth observation applications. The mission, through its three identical satellites, will provide average daily complete coverage of Canada’s land and oceans. In this paper, we provide an overview of the RCM and its characteristics and advancements over previous Canadian SAR missions. However, emphasis is given to the expected potential of the RCM in regard to environmental applications. Experimental results of environmental applications using simulated RCM data have shown promising potential for the mission.