OEA Completes Radarsat METOC project for National Defence
Release Date: 17 August 2005

On behalf of Defence R&D Canada – Ottawa, OEA Technologies Incorporated has completed an investigation of certain meteorology and oceanography (METOC) capabilities of Canada’s Radarsat satellite. The study was completed in June and supports the Canadian Forces’ recently established Polar Epsilon project, which will use Radarsat to expand Canada’s space-based ship and oil spill detection capabilities in the Arctic, Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.

Radarsat’s ability to detect ships and oil is influenced by surface winds, waves and currents. As existing sources of wind, wave and current data are too coarse in spatial resolution or too removed in time, OEA investigated the feasibility of deriving such information from the satellite imagery itself to conduct a rapid environmental assessment (REA) of (i) minimum detectable ship size and (ii) probability of oil spill false detection. The investigation was a follow-on of a previous REA study conducted by OEA on behalf of Defence R&D Canada – Atlantic.

As a component of the project, OEA also investigated means to overcome limitations in Canadian Forces’ deployed ocean observing infrastructure by using civilian ocean observing systems for military purposes. Such systems are required to develop and demonstrate space-based REA products.

In addition, as a means of decreasing limitations inherent in space-based synthetic aperture radar (e.g. the sensor on Radarsat) and ocean colour sensors used by Polar Epsilon (e.g. the Modis sensors on NASA’s Terra and Aqua satellites), the study raised the long-standing but poorly understood issue of employing both types of sensors operationally to monitor certain meteorological and oceanographic features of military interest.

A final report authored by staff from OEA Technologies, DRDC Ottawa, the Canadian Forces and the GOMOOS program within the University of Maine will be published by DRDC as DRDC Ottawa Technical Memorandum No. 2005-119.