---
title: "History of synthetic-aperture radar"
chunk: 4/4
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_synthetic-aperture_radar"
category: "reference"
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
date_saved: "2026-05-05T03:40:46.679531+00:00"
instance: "kb-cron"
---

== Digitisation ==
After the initial work began, several of the capabilities for creating useful classified systems did not exist for another two decades.
That seemingly slow rate of advances was often paced by the progress of other inventions, such as the laser, the digital computer, circuit miniaturization, and compact data storage. Once the laser appeared, optical data processing became a fast process because it provided many parallel analog channels, but devising optical chains suited to matching signal focal lengths to ranges proceeded by many stages and turned out to call for some novel optical components. Since the process depended on diffraction of light waves, it required anti-vibration mountings, clean rooms, and highly trained operators. Even at its best, its use of CRTs and film for data storage placed limits on the range depth of images.
At several stages, attaining the frequently over-optimistic expectations for digital computation equipment proved to take far longer than anticipated. For example, the SEASAT system was ready to orbit before its digital processor became available, so a quickly assembled optical recording and processing scheme had to be used to obtain timely confirmation of system operation. In 1978, the first digital SAR processor was developed by the Canadian aerospace company MacDonald Dettwiler (MDA). When its digital processor was finally completed and used, the digital equipment of that time took many hours to create one swath of image from each run of a few seconds of data. Still, while that was a step down in speed, it was a step up in image quality. Modern methods now provide both high speed and high quality.

== Data collection ==

Highly accurate data can be collected by aircraft overflying the terrain in question.  In the 1980s, as a prototype for instruments to be flown on the NASA Space Shuttles, NASA operated a synthetic aperture radar on a NASA Convair 990.  In 1986, this plane caught fire on takeoff.  In 1988, NASA rebuilt a C, L, and P-band SAR to fly on the NASA DC-8 aircraft.  Called AIRSAR, it flew missions at sites around the world until 2004.  Another such aircraft, the Convair 580, was flown by the Canada Center for Remote Sensing until about 1996 when it was handed over to Environment Canada due to budgetary reasons.  Most land-surveying applications are now carried out by satellite observation.  Satellites such as ERS-1/2, JERS-1, Envisat ASAR, and RADARSAT-1 were launched explicitly to carry out this sort of observation.  Their capabilities differ, particularly in their support for interferometry, but all have collected tremendous amounts of valuable data.  The Space Shuttle also carried synthetic aperture radar equipment during the SIR-A and SIR-B missions during the 1980s, the Shuttle Radar Laboratory (SRL) missions in 1994 and the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission in 2000.
The Venera 15 and Venera 16 followed later by the Magellan space probe mapped the surface of Venus over several years using synthetic aperture radar.

Synthetic aperture radar was first used by NASA on JPL's Seasat oceanographic satellite in 1978 (this mission also carried an altimeter and a scatterometer); it was later developed more extensively on the Spaceborne Imaging Radar (SIR) missions on the space shuttle in 1981, 1984 and 1994. The Cassini mission to Saturn used SAR to map the surface of the planet's major moon Titan, whose surface is partly hidden from direct optical inspection by atmospheric haze.  The SHARAD sounding radar on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and MARSIS instrument on Mars Express have observed bedrock beneath the surface of the Mars polar ice and also indicated the likelihood of substantial water ice in the Martian middle latitudes.  The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, launched in 2009, carries a SAR instrument called Mini-RF, which was designed largely to look for water ice deposits on the poles of the Moon.

The Mineseeker Project is designing a system for determining whether regions contain landmines based on a blimp carrying ultra-wideband synthetic aperture radar.  Initial trials show promise; the radar is able to detect even buried plastic mines.
The National Reconnaissance Office maintains a fleet of (now declassified) synthetic aperture radar satellites commonly designated as Lacrosse or Onyx.
In February 2009, the Sentinel R1 surveillance aircraft entered service in the RAF, equipped with the SAR-based Airborne Stand-Off Radar (ASTOR) system.
The German Armed Forces' (Bundeswehr) military SAR-Lupe reconnaissance satellite system has been fully operational since 22 July 2008.
As of January 2021, multiple commercial companies have started launching constellations of satellites for collecting SAR imagery of Earth.
NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR) is a joint Indo-US radar project carrying an L band and an S band radar. It is the world's first radar imaging satellite to use dual frequencies.

== Data distribution ==

The Alaska Satellite Facility provides production, archiving and distribution to the scientific community of SAR data products and tools from active and past missions, including the June 2013 release of newly processed, 35-year-old Seasat SAR imagery.
The Center for Southeastern Tropical Advanced Remote Sensing (CSTARS) downlinks and processes SAR data (as well as other data) from a variety of satellites and supports the University of Miami's Rosenstiel School of Marine, Atmospheric, and Earth Science. CSTARS also supports disaster relief operations, oceanographic and meteorological research, and port and maritime security research projects.

== See also ==
Aperture synthesis § History
History of radar

== References ==