Canadian Aeronautics and Space Institute President's Tour

Remote sensing satellites provide repetitive images of the earth using optical or microwave imagers. Canada chose to exploit radar satellites because they can reliably take images in darkness or through cloud. They are ideal for monitoring sea ice conditions and larger shipping in the Canadian Arctic and east and west coasts. RADARSAT 1, launched in November 1998, was developed using innovative technology to produce an image swath 500 km wide to track through the North West passage on a daily basis. RADARSAT 2, launched in December 2007, has even more capability with higher resolution and dual polarization. These satellites have worldwide coverage and boast many applications ranging from disaster assessment to rice crop monitoring. MDA markets and sells the images to customer countries through a network of over 40 ground stations.