China has conducted radar remote sensing technology and application for more than 20 years. In 1979, the first synthetic aperture radar (SAR) sample system in China was successfully developed by the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Since then a single channel with single polarization SAR and a multi-channel with multi-polarization SAR systems were produced in 1983 and 1987 respectively. Since 1988 the Hi- Tech Research and Development Program of China has organized and conducted a research titled 'Spaceborne SAR and Image Processing Technique', and has accomplished a real time digital SAR imaging processor.An airborne SAR with L-band and HH polarization was flown experimentally in 1997, acquiring imagery with 3 X 3 m spatial resolution. All these progresses have laid good foundations for the development of spaceborne SAR in China. At the same time, China has carried out extensive international cooperation in radar remote sensing, and has participated in SIR-C/X-SAR, Radarsat, ERS-1/2, JERS-2 SAR and GlobeSAR research programs for earth observations. The remote sensing satellite ground station in China can receive Radarsat and other spaceborne SAR data. Using these SAR data, significant application results have been achieved in the detection of ecology, hydrology, geology and oceanography, and monitoring of natural hazards.

Date Published: 19 August 1998
PDF: 4 pages
Proc. SPIE 3503, Microwave Remote Sensing of the Atmosphere and Environment, (19 August 1998); doi: 10.1117/12.319453

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 3503:
Microwave Remote Sensing of the Atmosphere and Environment
Tadahiro Hayasaka; Dong Liang Wu; Yaqiu Jin; JingShang Jiang, Editor(s)