An overview of Canadian processing systems for Radarsat

Radarsat, the first Canadian remote sensing spacecraft, is to be launched in early 1995. Facilities are being developed and upgraded in Canada to receive and process Radarsat data. The basic requirements to process all modes of Radarsat data will be met by the baseline Canadian Data Processing Facility (CDPF), installed at the Gatineau Satellite Station (GSS). The CDPF is responsible for the fast-delivery products such as ScanSAR imagery, as well as the suite of standard Radarsat products. All CDPF products will be calibrated to meet the Image Quality Parameters specified in the Radarsat Mission Requirements Document. FASTSCAN is a system being constructed to process Radarsat data in real-time during reception, to perform quality checks, to display imagery as a moving window and to archive quicklook imagery and catalogue update files. This system will be installed at GSS and may be duplicated for the Prince Albert Satellite Station (PASS). It can optionally process Radarsat ScanSAR data. The Radarsat Precision Processor (RPP) is being developed to respond to the needs for generating special, flexible Radarsat products that will not be available from the CDPF. The RPP will be implemented on a stand-alone workstation using current state-of-the-art high precision SAR processing algorithms (e.g. the Differential Range Deramp Frequency Domain (DRD-FD) processing algorithm). It will allow users to access and fine-tune image and processing parameters as well as to perform quality measurements