C‑CORE has been contracted by the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) to adapt its proprietary radar technology for space. The CSA is availing of C‑CORE’s expertise to help develop a critical part of the next generation of RADARSAT satellites, greatly improving their imaging capability.

Current radar satellites operate using a single channel data acquisition system that provides “big-picture” surveillance. Surveilling very large areas, such as Canada’s vast ocean estate, entails collecting images that cover hundreds of thousands of square kilometres in a single snapshot. However, covering these extremely large areas somes at the cost of detail in the image. C-CORE is building a prototype multi-channel radar that improves image detail by up to eight times. This capability could, for example, detect every car on the Avalon Peninsula or every bergy bit on the Grand Banks from a single picture.

It is expected that the new technology will be deployed to space within the next decade.