RADARSAT Constellation Mission (RCM)
Figure 1 - Illustration of RCM spacecraft (image credits: MDA, CSA, ESA)
About the mission/sensor
The Radarsat Constellation Mission (RCM) is an evolution of the RADARSAT program and is a follow-on of the RADARSAT-2 mission. RCM consists of a fleet of three identical spacecraft equipped with a C-band (5.405 GHz) SAR sensor. RCM is conducted by the Canadian Space Agency, with MDA Ltd. as prime contractor responsible for the design, construction and testing of the spacecraft.
SAR imaging modes and polarizations
RCM imaging modes in ScanSAR, StripMap and Spotlight are the followings:
- SC100 for Low resolution 100m (ScanSAR)
- LN for Low Noise at Medium Resolution (ScanSAR).
- SC50 for Medium Resolution at 50m (ScanSAR)
- SD for Ship Detection at Medium Resolution (ScanSAR).
- SC30 for Medium Resolution at 30m (ScanSAR)
- 16M for Medium Resolution at 16m (StripMap)
- QP for Medium Resolution at quad-polarization (StripMap)
- 5M for High Resolution 5m (StripMap)
- 3M for Very High Resolution 3m (StripMap)
- FSL for Very High Resolution (Spotlight)
Figure 2 - RCM Imaging modes (image credit: Canadian Space Agency)
More details and polarization options are reported in the below table (RW01):
Mode | Res.
m |
Looks
rng × az |
Swath Width
km |
Polarization Options | |||
HH, VV, HV or VH | VV or HH +HV | HH+VV | HH+VV+HV+VH | ||||
Low Resolution
100 m |
100 | 8×1 | 500 (500) | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
Medium Resolution
50 m |
50 | 4×1 | 350 (600) | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
High PRF
50 m |
50 | 4 × 1 | 350 | Yes | Yes | No | |
High Incidence
50 m |
50 | 4 × 1 | 133 | Yes | Yes | No | |
Medium Resolution 30 m | 30 | 2×2 | 125 (350) | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
Medium Resolution
16 m |
16 | 1×4 | 30 (350) | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
High Resolution
5 m |
5 | 1 | 30 (500) | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
Very High Resolution
3 m |
3 × 3 @35o | 1 | 20 (500) | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
Low Noise | 100 | 4×2 | 350 (600) | Yes | Yes | ||
Ship Detection | var. | 5×1 | 350 (350) | Yes | Yes | ||
Spotlight | 1 × 3
@35o |
1 | 20 (350)
[5 km in az] |
Yes | Yes | ||
Quad-Polarization | 9 | 1 | 20 (250) |
Processing levels
RCM SAR detected products are given as: Ground-range detected (GRD), and Geocoded detected data (GCD).
Data distribution
RCM Ground Range Detected (GRD) data is provided to the Charter within a compressed archive containing:
-
the RCM manifest file, given as Extensible Markup Language (XML) file (product.xml) under the “metadata” subfolder,
-
SAR GRD images at each polarization under the “imagery” subfolder,
-
manifest.safe,
-
Map overlay (mapOverlay.kml), product preview (productPreview.html) and scene quicklook in PNG and TIF (e.g. productOverview.png).
Reference Websites
RW01 - RCM technical characteristics website
RW02 - CSA official website