Radar satellite's stunning map of UK and Ireland



The map was made from just seven overflights.

This is a view of the UK and Ireland that you won't see before.

The mosaic was made from imagery from the NovaSar satellite.

The specialist spacecraft looks like a cheese-grater.

This technology can detect the ground even when there is a thick cloud.

This map was assembled in seven passes.

A traditional optical satellite, which views scenes at wavelengths familiar to our eyes, would struggle to make a map in so little time. Britain's grey weather is a constant source of frustration.

The name of the company is SSTL.

The radar antenna of NovaSar gives it the look of a cheese-grater.

Andrew Cawthorne is the director of Earth observation at the company that built and owns NovaSar.

"You know that when you pass overhead, you're going to get an image without any external influences causing you problems."

The full image on this page is not possible. Two gigabytes is the size of the one in my possession. If you could open it on your computer, you would see a lot of detail.

The area of the mosaic is approximately 1,500 km by 1,168 km or 928 miles.

It's possible to see the white specks of wind turbine blades off the coast of Cumbria.

You can see the wind turbine out at sea, which is really interesting, because the square on the ground is about 50m across. The turbine units are less than 50m across, but their towers have hard metallic surfaces which are excellent reflectors of radar energy, so they show up as brilliant specks.

There is a lot of information in the map. It can be used to understand the changing urban footprint of Britain or to monitor the types of crops being grown on its agricultural land.

NovaSar was funded by a grant. The UK has only one radar capability.

If Britain leaves the EU's Copernicus programme with its radar satellite capability, then NovaSar will be the only direct space asset the UK can task around the globe to guarantee an immediate image of the ground.

During times of crisis, radar comes into its own.

The new radar satellite called CarbSar is being developed at the site. It is being developed with Oxford Space Systems.

The front-end radar electronics that attach to the antenna are being developed byOSS. A lot of the elements are being tested.

We don't have the money yet to launch the CarbSar, but we have the money to build it.

In September, the UK government published a space strategy that set out the desire to remain in the EU's Copernicus programme and to build a constellation of small Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance satellites.

The budget was not announced to go with the strategy.

The unused subscription should be invested in home-grown systems if the country's association to Copernicus fails to materialise, according to the UK space industry figures. Over seven years, the sum would be 750m.

"We could do a lot with that kind of money," said Dr Cawthorne.

This type of imagery can be used to track land use.

The name of the company is SSTL.

The UK would get a new capability with the CarbSar concept.

Earth science.
Earth observation.
Space exploration.