Status of the RADARSAT Constellation Mission in the Third Year of Operation

Abstract:
The RADARSAT Constellation Mission, launched in 2019 to ensure Earth Observation data continuity for the Government of Canada and to sustain evolving remote sensing-based applications and decision making, has entered into its third year of operation. All three identical SAR satellites of the constellation have delivered close to 500 minutes of data per day on average, since Departments of the Government of Canada have completed their full transition to the constellation in summer 2020, while addressing high volume and low latency demand for maritime and land observational requirements. This paper further delves into RCM’s systems and evolution into its operational phase, from an earlier EUSAR paper reporting on LEOP, Commissioning and early operations.