BackForwardInstrument:  UMBRA-SAR 

Instrument details
Acronym UMBRA-SAR
Full name SAR instrument for UMBRA satellites
Purpose To make all weather observations of the land surface features at high spatial resolution.
Short description Imaging radar in X-Band with 1200 MHz bandwidth which can image down to 25 cm resolution.
Background A new commercial company launching a constellation of SARs for land surface applications.
Scanning Technique Four different modes see table below.
Resolution Depends on viewing option. Spotlight and Extended Dwell modes can image down to 25cm ground plane resolution.
Coverage / Cycle For a 12 satellite constellation, polar latitudes 15 min repeat, mid-latitudes 30 min repeat and tropical latitudes 45 min repeat.
Mass 70 kg Power 500 W Data Rate

 

Providing Agency UMBRA
Instrument Maturity Flown on operational programme
Utilization Period: 2021 to 2035
Last update: 2022-08-08
Detailed characteristics

Operation mode

Resolution

Swath

Polarisation

Spotlight

0.25-4 m

4x4 km

HH or VV

Stripmap

3 m

5-20 km x 50 km

HH or VV

Extended Dwell 

0.25-2 m

4x4 km

HH or VV

Scanning

10 m

100x100 km

HH or VV
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

Instrument classification
  • Earth observation instrument
  • Active and radio-occultation sensor
  • Imaging radar (SAR)
WIGOS Subcomponents
  • Subcomponent 4
  • SAR constellation (commercial)
  • SAR constellation (commercial)
Mission objectives
Primary mission objectives
  • Land cover
Evaluation of Measurements