The Capella Synthetic Aperture Radar Constellation

Abstract

The Capella constellation will consist of 36 agile synthetic aperture radars. Each radar will operate at an altitude of around 500 km in an approximately 90-minute polar orbit, providing average imaging revisit times of less than one hour. The radars will be single-pol X-band systems, capable of operating over a 500 MHz bandwidth in stripmap and spotlight imaging modes.