The X-SAR System

During the past few years, there has been significant progress made in the planning for an X-band SAR, designed to fly in the shuttle together with the SIR-C system of NASA/JPL. New work and studies have been initiated to enable the goal of two missions in 1990 to be met. The antennas of X-SAR and SIR-C will be placed side-by-side on a pivoted steerable foldable structure, which will allow antenna movement without changing the attitude of the shuttle. This figure also shows the pallet, underneath the antenna structure, which houses the electronic sub-systems of both radars. Although the two radar systems, X-band SAR and the L- and C-band SAR of SIR-C, have different technical designs, their overall system performance, in terms of image quality, is expected to be similar. The current predicted performance of the X-SAR system based on results of the continuing Phase B studies is detailed. Differences between the performance parameters of X-SAR and those of SIR-C are only detailed in as far as they affect planning decisions to be made by experimenters.