WMO OSCAR | Details for Instrument SAR-Travers

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Instrument: SAR-Travers

Instrument details

Acronym	SAR-Travers
Full name	Two-frequency SAR
Purpose	High-resolution all-weather imagery of ocean and land, specially suited for soil moisture
Short description	Two frequencies: L-band (1.28 GHz) and S-band (3.28 GHz), polarisation HH or VV, operating in parallel
Background	It is not sure that SAR-Travers has been actually flown on Resurs-O1-1. Certainly was flown on the PRIRODA mission on the MIR station in 1996
Scanning Technique	Pushbroom, side looking 35°, swath 80 km
Resolution	20 m
Coverage / Cycle	Global in 6 months (assuming 10 % duty cycle)
Mass		Power	850 W	Data Rate	32 Mbps

Providing Agency	Roscosmos
Instrument Maturity	Flown on operational programme
Utilization Period:	1986 to 1986
Last update:	2012-09-13

Detailed characteristics

Satellites this instrument is flying on

Note: a red tag indicates satellites no longer operational, a green tag indicates operational satellites, a blue tag indicates future satellites

Resurs Operational - 1 (Roscosmos)
- Resurs-O1-1 (see instrument status) Jan 1986 - Nov 1986

Instrument classification

Earth observation instrument
Active and radio-occultation sensor
Imaging radar (SAR)

WIGOS Subcomponents

Subcomponent 1
SAR imagers and altimeters
SAR imager

Mission objectives

Primary mission objectives

Biomass
Fraction of vegetated land
Land cover
Land surface topography
Oil spill cover
Sea-ice cover
Sea-ice type
Soil moisture at surface

Evaluation of Measurements

The following list indicates which measurements can typically be retrieved from this category of instrument. To see a full Gap Analysis by Variable, click on the respective variable.

Note: table can be sorted by clicking on the column headers
Note: * Primary mission objective.

Search:

Variable	Relevance for measuring this variable	Operational limitations	Explanation
Biomass*	1 - primary	Index only.. Infrequent coverage.	Derived from differential effect of vegetation on L-band and S-band
Glacier cover	1 - primary	Long time for mapping.	L- and S-band SAR for accurate boundary detection
Sea-ice cover*	1 - primary	No specific limitation.	L- and S-band SAR
Glacier motion	2 - very high	Infrequent coverage.	L-band SAR for interferometry between images taken at time intervals
Glacier topography	2 - very high	Long time for mapping.	L- and S-band SAR for interferometry between images taken at time intervals
Ice sheet topography	2 - very high	Long time for mapping.	L- and S-band SAR for interferometry between images taken at time intervals
Land surface topography*	2 - very high	Long time for mapping.	L- and S-band SAR for interferometry between images taken at time intervals
Oil spill cover*	2 - very high	Infrequent coverage.	L- and S-band SAR
Soil moisture (in the roots region)	2 - very high	Infrequent coverage.	L- and S-band SAR
Soil moisture at surface*	2 - very high	Infrequent coverage.	L- and S-band SAR
Fire fractional cover	3 - high	Infrequent coverage.	L- and S-band SAR. High resolution, for fire boundary detection
Sea-ice type*	3 - high	No specific limitation.	L- and S-band SAR. Type interpreted as age/roughness
Dominant wave direction	4 - fair	Infrequent coverage.	L- and S-band SAR. Variable measured by spectral analysis of "imagettes"
Dominant wave period	4 - fair	Infrequent coverage.	L- and S-band SAR. Variable measured by spectral analysis of "imagettes"
Snow water equivalent	4 - fair	Change detection only.. Infrequent coverage.	L- and S-band SAR. SWE is retrieved by grigging with data from ground networks
Vegetation type	4 - fair	No specific limitation.	L- and S-band SAR
Wave directional energy frequency spectrum	4 - fair	Infrequent coverage.	L- and S-band SAR. Variable measured by spectral analysis of "imagettes"
Fraction of vegetated land*	5 - marginal	No specific limitation.	L- and S-band SAR
Land cover*	5 - marginal	No specific limitation.	L- and S-band SAR
Significant wave height	5 - marginal	Highly indirect.. Infrequent coverage.	L- and S-band SAR. Retrieved by spectral analysis of "imagettes". Boundary condition necessary for the retrieval
Soil type	5 - marginal	No specific limitation.	L- and S-band SAR
Sea-ice elevation	5 - marginal	No specific limitation.	L- and S-band SAR. Sea ice elevation measured by interferometry
Sea-ice thickness	5 - marginal	Change detection only.	L- and S-band SAR. Sea ice elevation measured by interferometry. Thickness inferred by ice model

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