Radar Imaging Satellite

Indian Space Research Organisation

Radar Imaging Satellite

IRS satellites so far have been designed to provide data in the visible and near infrared region of electro-magnetic spectrum. The collection of data in these bands by the electro-optic imaging sensors has a limitation in the presence of clouds and fog, as the electromagnetic radiation in these wavelengths cannot penetrate the clouds/fog. India being a tropical country has a perennial cloud presence during kharif season (July October), which is the prime monsoon period in the country, limiting seriously the visible and near IR data from satellites for any meaningful applications. This season is very important from agricultural production point of view and the country is also prone during this season for disasters

such as flood, cyclones and storm surges. Besides, the visible & near IR data can only be obtained during daytime as it depends on sun's reflected radiation for data collection. It is where the use of microwave remote sensing data becomes essential. Microwave data such as Synthetic Aperture radar (SAR) has the innate capability of collecting data in day/night and all weather conditions as it operates in microwave bands for which the atmosphere is transparent. With the known radar backscatter sensitivity to soil moisture and surface roughness, SAR has become an important component in many applications, either in a stand-alone mode or in complementary/ supplementary to electro-optical sensors, and has been extensively used in areas such as agriculture, oceanography, forestry, geology and hydrology. Radar Imaging Satellite (RISAT-1), a new class of remote sensing satellite distinct from the established IRS class, is being developed by Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) as its first satellite imaging mission using an active radar sensor system. RISAT-1 carries a multi-mode C-band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) as the sole payload. The RISAT Mission is envisaged to augment the operational remote sensing programme in the country mainly enhancing agriculture and disaster support related applications. RISAT is slated for launch using PSLV by during the second half of 2008.

Mission
The primary mission objectives of RISAT-1:

To design, develop, launch and operate a space based SAR mission operating in multi-polarisation, multi-imaging modes with the mission life of atleast 5 years. To establish ground segment to receive, process and provide SAR data products and services in an operational manner to the user community To enable integrate with the existing applications and help develop newer applications.
RISAT-1 will be launched into a polar sun synchronous orbit of 610 kms with the local time of equatorial crossing at 6.00 AM in descending node, as SAR does not need sun illumination for the target. The choice of this orbit gives advantage in terms of maximizing the power generation, with lesser complexities in solar panel tracking arrangements and power system management, besides simplifying the thermal management. This orbit also meets the basic repetitivity cycle requirement of around 25 days for the medium resolution (25m) mode of SAR.

EARTH SENSOR

STAR SENSOR

SOLAR PANEL

THRUSTERS

SAR ANTENNA

The major orbit parameters

Altitude Inclination 610 Km, polar, circular 97.844 6.00 AM

Local time of pass

SAR Payload
RISAT-1 will carry a C-band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) catering to the needs of various applications stated elsewhere. It is well known that radar backscattering depends on sensor parameters such as frequency, polarisation, and incidence angle as well as on the target parameters such as dielectric constant, roughness and geometry. The RISAT-1 SAR sensor will be based on active phased array antenna technology, which will provide required electronic agility for achieving multimode capability. This state-of-theart technology is expected to survive technological obsolescence for long time to come and is upgradeable to other frequency bands in succeeding missions. RISAT SAR will operate with basic elevation beam-width of 2.90 to 1.60 over a total ground distance of 400 kms starting from a stand-off distance of 200 kms. Elevation beamwidth will be made to vary with pointing angles in order to achieve pointing independent swath of 30 kms and near constant optimum radar cross section performance. Fast beam pointing and beam width control in elevation direction is achieved electronically with the help of an active phased array antenna. The active phased array antenna is the heart of SAR payload. Essentially, active antenna consists of a printed dual polarized radiating aperture; dual channel Transmit-Receive (TR) modules comprising TR-RF, TR control and miniaturized EPCs; the control unit; and a signal distribution and calibration network. The RF and baseband system consists of feeder Solid State Power Amplifiers (SSPA); frequency generator; receiver; digital chirp generator; data acquisition unit comprising of high speed digitiser, BAQ and formatter; calibration switch matrix; and payload controller.

Modes
Coarse Resolution ScanSAR Mode (CRS) Medium Resolution ScanSAR Mode (MRS) Fine Resolution Stripmap Mode-2 (FRS-2) Fine Resolution Stripmap Mode-1 (FRS-1)

Resolution
2-4 look (depending upon pointing) 50 m resolution over a swath of 240 km in either single or dual polarisation imaging 1-2 looks (depending upon pointing) 25 m resolution over a swath of 120 km in either single or dual polarisation imaging Single look 9-12 m resolution image over 30 km swath in quad polarisation Single look 3-6 m resolution image over 30 km swath in either single or dual polarization

Modes of Operation
(U N 10 Q 0 U k AL m IF IE D) (U N 10 Q 0 U k AL m IF IE D)

608 km

FRS1&2 MODE

20 km 0

(Q 40 U 0 AL k IF m IE D)

CRS MODE MRS MODE

The active antenna consists of three panels each of 2m x 2m size, totaling 6 x 2 m in all, and is divided into 12 tiles of 1m x 1m each. Front side of each tile has a grid of 24 x 24 radiation patches. Backside of each tile carries 24 T/R modules, their power supply modules and controllers. With the help of phase shifters in the T/R modules, the antenna beam can be steered in range direction. Output RF peak power of each T/R module is 10 watts and the noise figure of its receiver is 2 dB. The antenna has its own calibration network to cross check the performance of its various elements on ground and in orbit. Input signals to and output signals from TR modules are processed using RF and baseband subsystems. A chirped signal at 5.35 GHz, having a pulse width upto 20 sec is fed to the T/R module for further amplification and transmission. The output of the receiver is filtered, digitised using block adaptive quantisation and sent to data formatter.

The data from SAR is formatted and fed to RF transmitter. A solid-state recorder (SSR) is part of the baseband data handling subsystem. The payload data can be transmitted in real time mode or in playback mode. It is planned to transmit the SAR data, with 640 MBPS data rate using Xband down-link in QPSK mode. A phased array antenna with dual polarization is used to overcome the limitation of available bandwidth. The data rate for each polarisation is, thus, planned to be 2 x160 Mbps. Data transmitter antenna will have onboard beam steering towards the ground station during data transmission.

Radar Imaging Satellite

Hardware Specification of RISAT-SAR

Frequency Antenna Type Antenna Size Side Lobe Level Number of TR modules Pulse width Average DC Input Power 5.350 GHz Microstrip Active Antenna 6m (Along Flight Direction) x 2m (Cross Flight Direction) -15 dB (Azimuth), -18 dB (Elevation) 576, each with 10 W peak power 20 sec 3.5 kW

Imaging Modes
Chirp Bandwidth Sampling Rate PRF Quantisation MAX. Data Rate @ 6 bit BAQ

FRS-1
75 MHz 83.3 MHz 3000 Hz 200 Hz

FRS-2
37.5 MHz 41.67 MHz

MRS/CRS
18.75 MHz 20.83 MHz

3000 Hz 200 Hz 3000 Hz 200 Hz 2/3/4/5/6 bit BAQ

564 Mbits/sec 556 Mbits/sec (Single Pol.) 1112 Mbits/sec (Dual Pol.

142 Mbits/sec (Single Pol.) 284 Mbits/sec (Dual Pol.)

Specification of RISAT Antenna

Size Frequency Antenna Beamwidth Beam Scanning Elevation Gain at center frequency Gain Bandwidth Antenna Bandwidth 3 Panels with each panel size Cross polarization Polarisation 6m x 2m 5.35 GHz 112.5 MHz 0.5 x 1.5 15 44.5 dB 1.0 dB 225 MHz 2m x 2m -23 dB Dual linear polarisation

Characteristics
RISAT-1 spacecraft mainframe bus is configured by deriving heritage from previous IRS missions as well as mission specific new subsystem designs. The prism shape of the satellite allows stowing of the active antenna in three folds around the prism structure. The prism structure is built around a central cylinder. Most of the spacecraft subsystems and the complete payload are integrated in the prism structure and the central cylinder. The solar panel and rest of the spacecraft subsystems are mounted on the cuboid portion of the satellite. Two solar panels with high efficiency multi-junction solar cell charge Ni-H2 battery of 70 AH capacity. The satellite has an onboard recorder with storage capability of 240 Gbits of data. The on-board data transmitter can transmit with maximum data rate of 640 Mbits/sec in X-band on two polarizations (RHC and LHC) by reuse of X-band carrier. In the nonoperating condition, the active antenna looks at nadir. Prior to operation, the spacecraft will be roll 0 tilted by 34 to enable viewing either right or left side of the flight track. The satellite will also have yaw steering capability to minimize earth rotation effects. Attitude and Orbit Control System (AOCS) caters to various modes of SAR payload operation. The pointing accuracy requirement

Spacecraft

of RISAT is 0.05deg (3); and -5 attitude rate specification is 5x10 deg/sec (3) for frequencies -4 0 - 0.2 Hz and 1x10 deg/sec (3) for frequencies 2 Hz; and the post-facto attitude knowledge requirement is 0.02deg. One of the payload operating modes, namely 'spot tracking' calls for imparting a large rate (around 0.42deg/sec) about pitch axis and imaging for a few seconds in the step and stare mode. The basic attitude reference during spot, strip, and ScanSAR modes of payload operation will be from gyros. For strip and ScanSAR modes, the updates will be from star sensors. The attitude sensors will include star sensors (18 deg.x18 deg. FOV), 4 sun sensors, magnetometers, Inertial Reference Unit (IRU) with DTGs, and conical earth sensors. The actuators will include RCS thrusters (eight 11N thrusters for attitude control and one 11N thruster for orbit control), eight 1N canted thrusters to produce control torques around all axes, and four 11N thrusters for orbit control with off-modulation capability); reaction wheels (0.3 NM and momentum storage capacity of 50 NMs); and magnetic torquers of 2 60 Ampm capacity. A bus management unit (BMU) is designed around the MA31750 processor which implements the MIL-STD 1750 architecture. The BMU interfaces with TTC (RF), sensors, power, thrusters, MTCs, DTG, WDE and payload for command and house keeping telemetry functions. It has MILSTD-1553 interface with star sensor and SAR payload.

Radar Imaging Satellite

Radar Imaging Satellite

Disassembled View of RISAT

PAA DECK SOLAR PANEL

PAYLOAD DECK

+R
RCS TANK RW DECK

SAR ANTENNA

+Y

+P

Mechanical System
Structure Thermal System Thermal Control Mechanisms CFRP - Aluminium prism honeycomb sandwich cylinder with Aluminium honeycomb panels Passive / Semi-active thermal control with paints, blankets, OSRs and closed looped auto temperature controllers Battery Electronics -5 5 C 0 to 40 C

Solar Array Deployment SAR Antenna Deployment

Power System
Solar panels Solar array power Chemical Battery Power Electronics 3 on either side, sun-tracking, 10 m 1500 W, normal to sun 1 x 70 AH Ni-H2 Battery Two regulated raw buses (42 & 70 V)
2

TTC System
Telecommand Telemetry Transponder PCM/PSK/PM Modulation, 4 Kbps Time tag command facility PCM/PSK/PM Modulation 4 Kbps (real time); 16 Kbps (playback) Uplink frequency Downlink frequency : S-band : S-band

AOCS
Sensors Actuators AOCE Pointing accuracy Positional accuracy Drift rate Earth sensors, Star sensors, 4Pi Sun sensors, Magnetometer, IRU with 3-DTGs, DSS Reaction wheels, Magnetic Torquers, Reaction control thrusters Microprocessor based system 0.05 about all axes 20 25 m (using SPS in autonomous mode) < 5.0 x 10 deg /sec
-5 0

Data Handling System

Data rate RF System X-band Frequency 2 x 160 Mbps (each polarization) QPSK Modulated Transmitter 8025 8400 MHz

Satellite Mass

1750 Kg

Ground Segment
RISAT-1 ground segment comprises of various elements to support the space segment, data reception, data processing and dissemination. It includes planning and development of various software and hardware systems for mission management by Spacecraft Control Centre (SCC) at ISTRAC, Bangalore, including a network of international ground stations. Data reception, processing, archival and dissemination at National Remote Sensing Agency (NRSA), Hyderabad. ISRO Satellite Centre (ISAC), Bangalore and Space Applications Centre (SAC), Ahmedabad provides support for developing and operationalizing the mission and data product software. payload operations scheduling and payload programming are planned to be carried out with necessary interfaces with NRSA centre to cater to the user-driven payload programming requests. Being in dawn/dusk sun synchronous orbit, RISAT will have no visibility clash with other IRS satellites over a ground station. The other IRS satellites have 10.30 AM to 12 Noon equatorial crossing time for descending passes. The data reception and the first level of processing (Level-0) systems are collocated in the DRS itself. A H/W quick look/Near Real Time processor system facilitates a quick look viewing of the image to assess the health of the Payload system in real time. The first level of products are generated at the DRS itself after the payload pass using the ancillary information. Later the data is transported to the dataprocessing centre at Balanagar through storage media like DLT and also through network for further processing.

Data Reception Station (DRS)

Payload Data Reception is at NRSA Data Reception Station (DRS) at Shadnagar, Hyderabad with necessary augmentation for handling the high data rate of 320 Mbps on each of the reception chains. It is planned to have a 7.5 m dual shaped cassegranian antenna system with G/T of 32 dB/ deg.K in X-band. Auto diversity of X-band tracking receiver is planned to facilitate tracking on either of two channels namely RHC or LHC. The Data reception station has the capability to receive the RT data as well as the data stored onboard satellite, which will be played back in the visibility.

Spacecraft Control Centre (SCC):

SCC is responsible for tracking the satellite, and carrying out mission operations. Using the existing ISTRAC Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network Stations at Lucknow, Bangalore, Bearslake, Mauritius and Biak mission operations, satellite health monitoring, health analysis,

Data Processing and Product Generation

The Data Processing Systems are implemented at Balanagar NRSA. The SAR data processing, unlike the optical sensors, has to undergo signal processing, both in the range and in azimuth directions, before images are formed. The data products envisaged for RISAT mission could be generally categorized as browse, standard (geo-tagged and geocoded), value added and application specific products (precision geocoded, terrain geocoded, Pol-SAR products, large area mosaics etc.).

RISAT Beyond
&
RISAT-1 will be followed with improved versions of microwave payloads for the various applications as part of the land and water thematic series of IRS satellites planned under the Indian EO programme. As part of the strategy the coming years will see the development of X-band and L-band SAR system as well as L-band Synthetic Aperture Radiometer. These satellites will also provide necessary support for the disaster management applications.

Radar Imaging Satellite

Simulated images from Airborne SAR

For more details about IRS programme & satellite

Dr V Jayaraman Director, Earth Observations System Indian Space Research Organisation Hq. Antariksh Bhavan, New BEL Road Bangalore-560094, India Tel: +91-80-23416358 / 23415474 Fax: +91-80-23415298 / 23413806 Email: vjay@isro.gov.in Mr M Krishnaswamy Programme Director, IRS ISRO Satellite Centre (ISAC) Airport Road, Bangalore-560 017, India Tel: +91-80-25205268 Fax: +91-80-25206263 E-mail: krishnas@isac.gov.in Mr R N Tyagi Project Director, RISAT ISRO Satellite Centre (ISAC) Airport Road, Bangalore-560 017, India Tel: +91-80-25082428 Fax: +91-80-25205271 E-mail: rntyagi@isac.gov.in

Data Supply
NRSA Data Centre National Remote Sensing Agency Balanagar Hyderabad-500037, India Tel: +91-40-23078560 / 23079572 Fax: +91-40-23078664 / 23078158
September 2007

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