Dedicated SAR applications for regional observation missions

Synthetic aperture radar (SAR) has seen a huge increase of interest from many present and potential users. The good spatial resolution associated with the all weather capability leads one to consider SAR as not only a scientific instrument but a tool for verifying and controlling human daily relationships with the environment. New applications have been identified for the regional scale environment involving a nation, a closed sea or a specific observation mission. The key parameter for enlarging the number of users and applications is the revisit interval time which should be on the order of hours. A constellation of small satellites (SS) can be conceived in multiple inclined orbits in to meet specific revisit time requirements. Small satellites can support adequately medium spatial resolution SAR. The paper deals with the description of possible observation missions for this new SS/SAR concept on the regional scale. The mission requirement is defined and system dimensioning aspects outlined