CSA contributions to R&D Support strategy ( Element 3 ) – Status update

1. CSA contributions to R&D Support strategy (Element 3)– Status update Yves Crevier SDCG-9 Session #8 SDCG-9 ESA ESRIN, Frascati, Italy February 25-26, 2016

2. Canadian Space Agency – RADARSAT Introduction The Canadian Space Agency overarching objectives in support of the GFOI Element 3: • To support our National Forest community (government, academic and private sectors) • In the context of multiple constellations of C-Band SAR missions: • To support science and R&D activities demonstrating unambiguously the contribution of C-Band data in an individual, interoperable and complementary basis. • To enable end-users to exploit the large amount of SAR data that is now or will soon be available in support of their programs for forest management, ecosystem protection, carbon accounting, etc. • To the development of documented, validated and repeatable algorithms directed to the development of products on forest attributes – this should avoid the constraints related to restricted data policy

3. Agency name and mission Acquisitions and data provision Please indicate R&D Groups [El-3 doc, Annex B] and R&D topics (e.g. degradation, sensor synergy etc.) of main interest/relevance to your agency (see extra slides for listing of current data requests)

4. Main Areas of Interest The Canadian Space Agency will focus its contribution towards the SDCG Element 3 objectives related to the use of C-Band: • As an individual / repeatable source of data (individual data collection) • Under a sensor interoperability framework - obtaining the same thematic results from different sensor (required coordination) • Full interoperability: Same thematic results (i.e. intercalibrated sensors) • Partial interoperability: Varying range of similarity (i.e. use of multiple missions) • Partial interoperability generally acceptable if the differences can be quantified and corrected for • Under a sensor complementarity framework -obtaining additional thematic information through the (synergistic) use of two or more different sensors (required coordination) • SAR / Optical missions • SAR / SAR missions – multi-frequency 4

5. CSA Acquisitions and data provision • Please indicate whether your agency would be able to accept (a) modification of existing Study Sites (e.g. location, timing, etc.) - YES (b) addition of new Study Sites (not currently listed for your mission in the Element-3 plan) by existing R&D groups - YES (c) addition of new R&D groups and new Study Sites during 2016 - YES

6. CSA Data provision procedures Indicate whether anything has changed (since SDCG-8) regarding your agency's procedures provide data to GFOI R&D groups (e.g. scene limitations, data sharing, data request/access procedures, etc.) – Same as SDCG 6, 7 and 8 Research Announcements Please indicate any forthcoming research announcement(s) or funding opportunities that may be relevant to the GFOI R&D plan. N/A

7. CSA Other information See slides 8 to 14

8. RADARSAT 2 Acquisitions and data provision • RADARSAT-2 provides excellent wide area high/medium resolution coverage and capacity– can support National coverage as well as supersite objectives • RADARSAT-2 has remaining capacity that is sufficient for creating and maintaining a high/medium resolution archive of SAR data • Analysis of exact-repeat stacks of SAR imagery allows for effective and efficient quantitative assessment of land cover and changes in forest environments

9. RADARSAT 2 Acquisitions and data provision • CSA is willing to support the monitoring of study site as well as “demonstrating” C-Band capabilities for coherent national monitoring using dense time series in the context of Element 3 (Science only)

10. Preferred Modes

11. Current Radarsat-2 modes 1. High resolution land Higher resolution 0.25 2 1 2. Large area land 1 SL 3. Maritime Wider swath + higher resolution UFW 3 MFW (SLC) UF MF (SLC) XF 5 Resolution (m) MF MFW FW 10 More frequent revisit (1/day) 3 20 S W SCW SCN 100 Swath width (km) 150 100 300 500 20 50

12. XF (repeated) archive coverage tropical belt (May 2013 till May 2015, data downlinked at Canadian Stations) Archive searches and quick look imagery (CEOCAT): https://neodf.nrcan.gc.ca/neodf_cat3/index.php?lang=en

13. Example of exact repeat 5 m archives RADARSAT-2Coverage of Indonesia (status November 2014)

14. RADARSAT 2 Data provision for R&D • Moving from a SOAR-based data dissemination approach to an open sharing process as defined within a Multi-User Framework; • Require a thorough a priori identification of image products and certification of data user organizations and individuals; • Number of scenes and access is project dependant and is to be determined; • Operating under background mission framework; • As a counterpart, we are assuming open sharing of ground data, methods, and derived results; • No cost to users – all processing and data costs will be covered by CSA; • Data products and processing level to be agreed with PIs; • Open to a coordinated AO on GFOI key science questions.

15. Agency name and mission Extra slides (for your easy reference only) GFOI R&D satellite data requests according to El-3 plan

16. Agency name and mission GFOI R&D requests for RADARSAT-2