NovaSAR Workshop

Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) is an active imaging process with applications to environment, civil and defence sectors. SAR sensors can be hosted on satellites, drones or in-situ and can ‘see through clouds’, meaning that SAR imagery of the Earth can be constructed when optical imagery cannot, e.g. When it’s cloudy or at night.

Satellite Applications Catapult seeks to raise awareness of the NovaSAR-1 capabilities by increasing the number of educated users within the UK science, Government, and business communities.

To achieve this Satellite Applications Catapult will be hosting a NovaSAR Workshop on Wednesday 12 October to stimulate discussions across the academic, commercial, civil, and defence communities. This will be held at Harwell Space Campus, Oxfordshire, with the option to join virtually.

This is a great opportunity to bring the whole UK community together, organised by a committee of multiple national stakeholders leading on NovaSAR.

Agenda:

09:30 – 9:45 – Welcome and introduction – Cristian Rossi, Satellite Applications Catapult

09:45 – 10:00 – A gentle introduction to Synthetic Aperture Radar – Emma Hatton, Satellite Applications Catapult

10:00 – 10:20 – NovaSAR System Space Segment (an overview of the satellite and imaging modes) – Phil Whittaker, SSTL

10:20 – 10:40 – Toward the generation of NovaSAR ARD: Airbus Normalised Radar Backscatter product – Pasquale Iervolino, Airbus

10:40 – 11:00 – A feasibility study into the use of high-resolution Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) in identifying aids to navigation – Scott Kaczor and Sara McGourty, UKHO

11:00 – 11:20 – Coffee break

11:20 – 11:40 – Automated ship detection in NovaSAR images – Tobie Carman, DSTL

11:40 – 12:00 – AssenSAR Meets SSTL: Naval Platform Signatures in NovaSAR Images of the Sea Surface – Alin Achim, University of Bristol

12:00 – 12:20 – A NovaSAR-1 for Maritime Domain Awareness – Raffaella Guida, University of Surrey

12:20 – 12:50 – An overview of NovaSAR applications – Mark Hennen, Satellite Applications Catapult

12:50 – 13:00 – Closing Remarks – Cristian Rossi, Satellite Applications Catapult

13:00 – 15:00 – Lunch and Networking