Extensive Global Coverage

Traditional methods of high-resolution monitoring of large areas require the user to mosaic together a large number of air photographs. This process is not only time-consuming and expensive, but significant differences between the first and last photographs can occur due to rapidly changing environments.

The new satellite systems greatly mitigate this problem by collecting a single image over a large area. RADARSAT is a good example of this capability. It can capture large areas ranging from 50 km x 50 km (at 10m pixel size) to 500 km x 500 km (100 meter pixel size). This figure illustrates how single RADARSAT can be used to help characterize a 86,176-acre military base. (Access for larger view.)

In general the new satellite systems will offer users a large number of area coverage options to meet their particular needs.