MODERN SPACE RADAR SYSTEMS OF EARTH MONITORING

This article explores brief overview of modern radar systems for imaging and monitoring the Earth from space. The operating radar systems are divided into four classes: large spacecraft with global monitoring SAR, medium-sized spacecraft with detailed observation SAR, small spacecraft with detailed observation SAR, and commercial mini-spacecraft with detailed observation SAR. Listed are the main representatives of each class. Such large satellites as: European – Sentinel-1 (A, B); Japanese – ALOS-2; Canadian company MDA – Radarsat-2; Argentine – SAOCOM-1A / 1B; Chinese – Gaofen-3. Representatives of the class of mid-size spacecraft with SAR: German Aerospace Center (DLR) and the leading European space company Airbus DS – TerraSAR-X, TanDEM-X; Spanish PAZ; the Italian constellation of Cosmo-SkyMed satellites of the first and second generation; Japanese group IGS-Radar; Korean – KOMPSAT-5; Russian satellites “Kondor”. The small class includes Israeli mission satellites – TecSAR, RISAT-2 (India), Ofeq-10; Japanese – ASNARO-2, German satellites SAR-Lupe, English – NovaSAR-1. The last class of mini-spacecraft includes American - Capella and Finnish – ICEYE. The article also presents spacecraft for radar imaging, planned for launch, namely: the second generation of Italian satellites COSMO-SkyMed – CSG-2; 8 ICEYE spacecrafts (Finland); an increase in the Capella constellation, X-band radar satellites of the SuperView constellation and radar satellites Zhuhai (China); ALOS-4 JAXA (Japan); KOMPSAT-6 (Korea), radar satellites of the IRS constellation (India), American satellites XpressSAR, PredaSAR, EOS SAR, satellites of the Russian design Obzor-R1 and KondorFKA, as well as the space complex planned by ROSKOSMOS, including an orbital constellation of 6 small spacecraft for radar surveillance.