Recent and Ongoing Developments in using RADARSAT-2 for Maritime Surveillance in Canada

Abstract:
Having the world’s longest coastline, Canada has a great interest in maintaining and advancing its maritime surveillance capabilities. Launched in 2007, the MDA-built RADARSAT-2 has been providing invaluable means for monitoring Canada’s coasts and the surrounding waters, alerting government users on suspicious and polluting vessels. Due to be launched in 2018, the RADARSAT Constellation Mission (RCM) will expand our current maritime surveillance capabilities. In this report we provide a high-level overview on some of the operational and R&D activities related to Canada’s maritime surveillance operations via exploitation of RADARSAT-2 imagery and in preparation for RCM.