Earth observation has revolutionized our understanding of our planet, providing crucial insights into climate change, natural disasters, resource management, and more. While optical imagery has long been and continues to be the mainstay of Earth observation also for the satellite conntellations used by Domino-E, Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) technology is rapidly gaining prominence, offering unique capabilities that complement and enhance traditional methods.
What is SAR?
SAR that stands for Synthetic Aperture Radar and is an active remote sensing technology that transmits radar pulses toward the Earth’s surface and measures the reflected signals. By processing these signals, SAR systems can create high-resolution images of the Earth, even through clouds, darkness, and other atmospheric conditions. This all-weather, day-and-night capability makes SAR an invaluable tool for Earth observation, especially in regions with frequent cloud cover or limited daylight hours.
Advantages of Synthetic Aperture Radar
- All-Weather Imaging: Unlike optical sensors that rely on visible light, SAR can penetrate clouds, fog, and smoke, providing reliable imagery even in adverse weather conditions. This capability is crucial for monitoring dynamic events like floods, hurricanes, and volcanic eruptions, where timely information is vital for disaster response and recovery efforts.
- Day-and-Night Operation: SAR operates independently of sunlight, allowing for continuous monitoring of the Earth’s surface, 24/7. This capability is particularly valuable for tracking changes in remote or inaccessible areas, such as polar regions or dense forests, where daylight hours are limited or cloud cover is persistent.
- Surface Deformation Mapping: SAR’s unique ability to measure subtle changes in the Earth’s surface makes it a powerful tool for monitoring ground deformation caused by earthquakes, volcanic activity, or even subtle shifts in infrastructure. This information is crucial for assessing risks, predicting hazards, and ensuring the safety of critical infrastructure.
- Biomass and Land Cover Mapping: SAR can penetrate vegetation and measure its structure and moisture content, providing valuable information for biomass estimation, forest monitoring, and land cover classification. This data is essential for sustainable resource management, carbon accounting, and biodiversity conservation efforts.
- Ocean Monitoring: SAR can measure ocean surface roughness, wave height, and surface currents, providing valuable data for maritime safety, oil spill detection, and understanding ocean dynamics. This information is critical for protecting marine ecosystems, managing fisheries, and supporting safe navigation.
Satellite Constellations Providing SAR Technology and their Integration to Domino
By today there are several satellite constellations currently providing SAR data for Earth observation. Amongst these are Sentinel 1 and Sentinel 2, but also commercial providers, such as Capella Space and ICEYE. As the interest and applications for SAR capabilities grow, they are becoming increasingly relevant to the Domino ecosystem, which has traditionally focused on optical systems but is increasingly embracing interoperability with other Earth Observation (EO) capabilities. While the integration of SAR into Domino is still in its early stages, it presents opportunities for small, and large enterprisesin the industry. This integration could involve seamlessly incorporating SAR data formats into Domino workflows, providing access to specialized SAR processing tools, developing and deploying machine learning models tailored for SAR data analysis, integrating interactive visualization tools, and facilitating collaborative projects by sharing SAR datasets, models, and analysis results within the Domino environment.
Conclusion
SAR technology has emerged as a game-changer in the field of Earth observation, providing unique capabilities that complement and enhance traditional optical imagery. Its all-weather, day-and-night operation, along with its ability to measure surface deformation, map biomass, and monitor oceans, makes it an indispensable tool for a wide range of applications. With the growing availability of SAR data from both public and commercial satellite constellations, the future of Earth observation is brighter than ever, enabling us to see the invisible and gain deeper insights into our dynamic planet.