A mosaic of the United States taken by the renowned Radarsat-1 Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) satellite, operated by the Canadian Space Agency (CSA), was presented recently to conference delegates attending the International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium (IGARSS) in Honolulu.

Radarsat's view of the contiguous states and boundaries.

"The absolutely outstanding results of the USA mosaic", said Surendra Parashar, CSA Director of Satellite Operations, "reaffirms our commitment to pursue similar projects that will continue to enhance knowledge, understanding and protection of our global resources and environment."

The USA mosaic, a compilation of 190 images captured over the continent broadly demonstrates the timely and detailed observation capacity of Radarsat-1 and the expertise of Radarsat International who in a joint project with the CSA processed the high resolution data required to create the USA mosaic.

Radarsat-1 is providing Canada and the world with an operational radar satellite system capable of delivering timely and critical data to assist disaster relief and emergency rescue efforts and the information required by commercial and scientific users in the fields of agriculture, cartography, hydrology, forestry, oceanography, ice studies and coastal monitoring.

The first such map ever produced of the United States by an Earth Observation satellite, the USA mosaic is part of an on-going project of the Canadian Space Agency which has generated the production of mosaics of Antarctica, Canada and now the United States. Currently underway is the comprehensive data mapping of Africa which is projected for completion in 2001.