Radar

Arctic Radar Revolution: Space Norway & SSTL Join Forces on Game-Changing Satellite Program

Background: Space Norway & SSTL Space Norway AS is Norway’s national satellite operator, tasked with developing strategic space infrastructure for governmental and societal needs sstl.co.uk. Wholly owned by the Norwegian Ministry of Trade, Industry and Fisheries, Space Norway focuses on “critical connectivity” and Arctic coverage – operating telecommunication satellites (the Thor series), managing fiber links to Svalbard, and overseeing small satellites for maritime tracking (the AISSat and NorSat series) sstl.co.uk. In 2019, it formed Space Norway HEOSAT to field two highly-elliptical broadband satellites for the Arctic (the Arctic Satellite Broadband Mission) sstl.co.uk. The new radar initiative marks Space Norway’s expansion

19 September 2025

Scanning the Canopy: ESA’s Biomass Radar Craft Maps Global Forest Carbon with P‑Band Vision

Biomass was selected in May 2013 as ESA’s seventh Earth Explorer mission to quantify forest carbon from space. The mission uses a P-band synthetic aperture radar at ~435 MHz (about 70 cm wavelength) with a 12-meter mesh reflector deployed in orbit to penetrate canopies and sense trunks. It employs fully polarimetric SAR (HH, HV, VH, VV) and SAR tomography to produce three-dimensional maps of forest structure and above-ground biomass. Biomass launched on 29 April 2025 aboard a Vega-C rocket (flight VV26) into a 666 km sun-synchronous orbit, carrying a ~1.25-tonne observatory. The project aims for wall-to-wall global biomass maps, delivering

27 June 2025

Carbon Mapping · Climate Change · Forest Monitoring · Remote Sensing · Space Technology

Radar Vision Boom: Why High‑Res SAR Imaging is Skyrocketing Toward 2030

The global high-resolution SAR imaging market was about $5.4 billion in 2024 and is forecast to reach about $11.6 billion by 2030, a CAGR of roughly 13%. Capella Space had around 10–15 satellites in 2024 delivering 0.5 m and 0.25 m resolution imagery, while ICEYE operates the world’s largest SAR constellation with 20+ satellites. Recent commercial SAR missions have achieved sub-meter resolution, with Umbra reporting ~25 cm imagery and Capella demonstrating ~30 cm and 25 cm-class products. NASA-ISRO’s NISAR mission will carry both an L-band and an S-band radar on the same satellite. North America accounted for about 33.8% of

26 June 2025

Earth Observation · NASDAQ:IONQ · Radar · Remote Sensing · SAR Imaging · Space Technology

Laser vs. Radar: Shocking Secrets of Earth’s Shrinking Ice Revealed from Space

ICESat-2 (NASA) launched September 15, 2018 on a Delta II rocket and carries the Advanced Topographic Laser Altimeter System (ATLAS), a photon-counting laser that operates from a ~481 km near-polar orbit (92°) with ground tracks repeating every 91 days to map ice sheets, sea-ice freeboard, glacier height, and forest canopy. CryoSat-2 (ESA) launched April 8, 2010 on a Dnepr rocket, in a ~717 km, 92° inclined drifting orbit not sun-synchronous and reaching up to 88° latitude to measure ice thickness on land and sea. ICESat-2 fires about 10,000 laser pulses per second (532 nm green) with six beams, producing an

23 June 2025

Climate Change · Earth Observation · Laser Technology · Radar · Satellite Imaging · Space