ABSTRACT 



The Seasat Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) data set has clearly proven 

 the research and operational potential of such observational systems. As a 

 consequence, the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the 

 Canadian Department of Energy, Mines and Resources have undertaken bilateral 

 studies to define a future bilateral SAR satellite program. These studies 

 have been given the names Free-Flying Imaging Radar Experiment (FIREX) in the 

 U.S. and RADARSAT in Canada. The studies include addressing the requirements 

 supporting a SAR mission posed by four disciplines: science and operations in 

 sea-ice-covered waters, oceanography, renewable resources, and nonrenewable 

 resources. In each discipline, workshops were held to bring together experts 

 to examine the ways in which an augmented SAR satellite could enable progress 

 on the significant research problems within the discipline, and to define the 

 instrument, mission, and program parameters imposed by the approaches to those 

 problems. Documents describing these mission requirements are being published 

 elsewhere; here, summaries from the various workshops are collected together 

 to show the total research investigations supporting a SAR flight and the 

 subsequent overall mission requirements and tradeoffs. 



-Ill- 



