MDA Introduces Its Next SAR Mission: CHORUS
This Statellite Will Change How You See The World
At the GeoIgnite, Winter Geo conference on March 2, 2022, during a livestream presentation, MDA Senior Director, Wayne Hoyle, introduced CHORUS, its next SAR mission. He discussed how this multi-sensor Earth observation satellite constellation will change how and when people see the world.
Hoyle’s presentation consisted of topics including CHORUS heritage, imaging modes and coverage, the CHORUS Maritime Cross Cue, the coverage of the satellite for areas of interest such as Canadian agriculture AOI, and North Atlantic iceberg mapping. He also spoke about the CHORUS mission’s key details.
Wayne Hoyle, Senior Director at MDA
CHORUS is MDA’s fourth-generation satellite. It is a synthetic aperture radar mission (SAR). CHORUS has enhanced imaging capability, can operate in an inclined orbit in all weather conditions, has fast tasking and downlink, and will be used for time-critical applications. It also has consistent monitoring, as well as next-generation collection capabilities (machine learning and AI).
Hoyle showed how CHORUS offers improvements over RADARSAT-2 and RCM, with the addition of CHORUS-X.
For the “how” it will change how people see the world, CHORUS has less data compression, a larger scene size (up to 700km), lower noise, and higher resolution. It also has NRT Cross Cue Operations. To answer the “when”, CHORUS’ orbit will give even more frequent imaging opportunities with 1.9 times more daily access across Canadian AOI imaging at different times of the day, 2.8 times more coverage for agriculture, and 2.7 times more coverage for iceberg monitoring.
CHORUS will be complementary to other SAR Missions and will give real-time insight. Hoyle says Canada has been “a significant pioneer in the use and exploitation of SAR data.”
A deep, heartfelt thank you to MDA, a Gold Sponsor for Canada’s National Geospatial Conference, GeoIgnite, Winter Geo.
An informative Q and A session followed the presentation. You can watch the live-streamed presentation on Youtube below.
