Snapshots of Antarctica from RADARSAT-1

Carried aloft by a NASA rocket launched from Vandenburg Air Force Base on November 4, 1995, the Canadian Radarsat-l is equipped with a C-band synthetic aperture radar (SAR) capable of acquiring high resolution (25 m) images of Earth's surface day or night and under all weather conditions. Along with the attributes familiar to researchers working with SAR data from the European Space Agency's Earth Remote Sensing Satellite and the Japanese Earth Resources Satellite, Radarsat-l has enhanced flexibility to collect data using a variety of swath widths, incidence angles and resolutions. Most importantly, for scientists interested in Antarctica, Radarsat-l can be maneuvered in orbit to rotate the normally right-looking SAR to a left-looking mode. This 'Antarctic Mode' provides for the first time a nearly instantaneous, high-resolution view of the entirety of Antarctica on each of two proposed mappings separated by 2 years. The first, Antarctic Imaging Campaign began on September 9, 1997 and was successfully concluded on October 20, 1997.