HISEA-1: The First C-Band SAR Miniaturized Satellite for Ocean and Coastal Observation

• Published in: Remote Sensing
• Main Authors: Sihan Xue, Xupu Geng, Lingsheng Meng, Ting Xie, Lei Huang, Xiao-Hai Yan
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2021
• Subjects: HISEA-1; synthetic aperture radar (SAR); small satellite; Science; Q; Sea ice
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.3390/rs13112076; https://doaj.org/article/a27f0e5437c84188b2aed81132efd14b

On 22 December 2020, HISEA-1, the first C-band SAR small satellite for ocean remote sensing, was launched from the coastal Wenchang launch site. Though small in weight, the images it produced have a high spatial resolution of 1 m and a large observation width of 100 km. The first batch of images obtained within the first week after the launch confirmed the rich information in the data, including sea ice, wind, wave, rip currents, vortexes, ships, and oil film on the sea, as well as landmark buildings. Furthermore, geometric characteristics of sea ice, wind vector, ocean wave parameter, 3D features of buildings, and some air-sea interface phenomena in dark spots could also be detected after relevant processing. All these indicate that HISEA-1 could be a reliable, remarkable, and powerful instrument for observing oceans and lands.