JERS-1 Synthetic Aperture Radar
The JERS-1 Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) is
an L-band (23cm wavelength) imaging radar
on-board an Earth orbiting spacecraft
built, launched (in February, 1992), and operated by the Japanese
National Space Development Agency (NASDA), the Japanese
Ministry of
International Trade and Industry (MITI), and the Remote Sensing
Technology Center of Japan (RESTEC). This radar has a
full-resolution of about 20 meters (though the highest resolution data
available on this CD-ROM is 100 meter
imagery). The spacecraft is in a polar orbit, and
can image most of the Earth's land surface.
On August 1997, the JERS-1 satellite lost the ability to record data, therefore limiting its coverage to
areas within JERS-1 ground station masks. On October 11, 1998, the JERS-1 SAR mission terminated.