Posted on 05/14/2020 4:58:25 PM PDT by gandalftb
Capella Space announced May 13 that it signed a deal to provide synthetic aperture radar to the U.S. Navy, even though the company has yet to put a satellite on orbit.
SAR creates images with radar, meaning it can produce images regardless of the weather or lighting conditions.
SAR satellite constellation will be able to collect sub-0.5 meter imagery, capable of identifying various types of aircraft or vehicles at ground level.
(Excerpt) Read more at c4isrnet.com ...
The antenna CAN be physically long, but doesn’t have to be. The ‘synthetic’ aspect of the aperture, like creating a ‘huge’ lens on a telescope, is due the the speed of the satellite over the surface of the earth.
When the RADAR beam leaves the satellite, the satellite is over position A, when the return comes back, the satellite has moved XXX meters, and the software transforms that into what is essentially a VERY large lens — using RADAR frequency instead of visible light for the image.
I forget the name of the aircraft that did this in the Gulf war, but they also used a poor man’s tool - VCR on fast forward — to look at the RADAR tapes and see where Saddam’s truck yards were and other marshaling areas. I do recall the aircraft looking rather ungainly with a large angular ‘pod’ along the bottom of the fuselage.
sub 0.5 meter res is hardly space based photo quality; they could count head hairs in the 60s and newer ones can tell the color of your eyes at night with overcast and rain
I’ll sleep better knowing that the government can carefully track all those evil serfs who do not obey stay-at-home orders...
Lots of governors licking their lips...
SAR has been around for a long time.
JSTARS!
Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System, or JSTARS. The aircraft used Ground Moving Target Indicator and Synthetic Aperture Radar, or SAR.
The E8-C
https://airvectors.net/avjstars_2.jpg
Yup, been around since the 50s.
Not exactly — if you can find it in a library, read a book called Deep Black, and learn a LOT about the old Keyhole sat technology. or buy it — https://www.amazon.com/dp/0425108791/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_U_B9DVEbE7SGRG2
There were rumors on the best days you could discern shoulder boards/ rank of officers. But pretty sure that was just rumor.
This SAR is 3D, .5 meter resolution at night, overcast. It’s going to be very useful tracking particular vehicles. Now we can drone target 24/7 anywhere when IR isn’t available or crispy enough.
Some very smart daddies put their very beautiful hippy daughters through college by designing that system.
Dad worked ASA/NSA in the 60’s. During the Desert Storm coverage they would talk about satellite imagery and he would just laugh. He said he had a picture on his wall when he was in the military of ripples in the water caused by water dripping off of a Soviet anchor. Laughed about it a lot insisted that known technology is about 40 years behind the military.
The Navy will now be able to see subs surfacing at night as they all do and particularly the narco subs.
Yep. And any ‘black program’ that would show there’s systems in place on par with that described here would not, should not and cannot be discussed here or anywhere on the Internet for that matter.
Did it look like this OV-1D?
” they could count head hairs in the 60s and newer ones can tell the color of your eyes at night with overcast and rain”
ROTFLMAO!
“The Navy will now be able to see subs surfacing at night”
When I was in the Navy we surfaced once per 30 days
They also viewed the VCR tapes in reverse to discover where enemy planes, vehicles, and troops came from.
JSTARS?
I spent a little time on the Ohio, that was tolerable. Any boat smaller would have been hard duty. Most foreign boats need to surface at night.
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