Trends in commercial radar remote sensing industry [Industrial Profiles]

The last two decades have seen an unprecedented development in the satellite-based Earth observation industry. The combination of an increasing number of operational satellites, the higher resolution of the acquired data and the advances in the processing techniques have enabled a wider adoption of satellite data and the development of a diverse range of products and applications. Although the market is still strongly biased toward electro-optically derived imagery a rising tide of acceptance and usage of satellite derived Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) data can be noticed over the last few years. This trend is a result of the increasing availability of commercial SAR satellite data, development of sophisticated processing and analysis tools and industry driven training effort conducted to familiarize image analysts with the specifics of SAR imagery, its interpretation and its utility.