The Rural Voice, 1985-09, Page 20rust • , w74.
C•band synthetic aperture radar (SA R) image of an area near Melfort, Saskatchewan. Bright fields are rapeseed (canola)
in bloom, dark fields are summer fallow, medium are grains. In addition to its all-weather capability, SAR data have the
potential to improve crop recognition early in the season because of the SAR's sensitivity to plant structures.
— Canada Centre for Remote Sensing
States on July 23, 1972. LANDSAT
5, launched in March of 1984, is the
latest in the LANDSAT series.
Support for these satellites comes
from the provincial governments,
their associated Remote Sensing Cen-
tres, the Canola Council of Canada,
the Wheat Board, and Agriculture
Canada. In Ontario, the Remote Sen-
sing Centre is located in the Ontario
Ministry of Natural Resources
building on Bay Street in Toronto.
"Researchers at the provincial level
are on the firing line, while we do the
support -research and international
wheeling and dealing," says Ryerson,
a senior scientist at CCRS in Ottawa
for eleven years. Some of the training
for such researchers and scientists is
provided in Ontario. The University
of Waterloo is regarded as having the
best remote sensing program in
Canada. The University of Guelph,
and most recently the University of
Western Ontario in London, have
also created excellent courses in
remote sensing.
LANDSAT's sensing systems,
unlike a camera, do not record just
the colours seen by the human eye.
LANDSAT measures and returns in-
formation about the reflection of on-
ly green and visible red light. It has
18 THE RURAL VOICE
the added advantage of obtaining in-
formation about infra -red reflection.
Infra -red wavelength measurements
can be correlated to crop growth
stage and green biomass, which can-
not be detected by the human eye.
This satellite offers 30 -metre resolu-
tion with the Thematic Mapper (TM).
The TM is particularly suited for crop
monitoring.
Images from 1983, 1984, and 1985
have been studied recently to discover
the extent and effect of the drought in
Western Canada. The same
technology is being used in Ethiopia
to find where the drought is most pro-
nounced in order to get food aid to
the people who need it most. The
satellite has both commercial and
humanitarian applications, Ryerson
says with pride.
The next satellite to be launched is
France's SPOT (Systeme Probatoire
d'Observation de la Terre) in
November of 1985. Canada, the
Japan of the remote sensing industry,
will be receiving and interpreting the
data for North America. This is a
tribute to Canadian remote sensing
ability, Ryerson says.
Canada's own satellite, RADAR -
SAT, which has been in the research
and planning stage since the mid to
late 1970s, is expected to be launched
in the 1990. It's hard to predict exact-
ly when the government will decide it
is politically best to launch RADAR -
SAT, but international agreements
have already been made with the
United States and the United
Kingdom, Ryerson says. "RADAR -
SAT will give us some information
we've never had before." Ryerson ex-
pects this satellite will be in orbit for
at least 10 years with in -orbit servic-
ing. The space shuttle, equipped with
the Canada Arm, will repair, main-
tain, and update RADARSAT in
space. This concept of incorporating
new technology will probably never
become out -dated.
RADARSAT's new capabilities
will be especially helpful in monitor-
ing ice and assisting companies in-
volved in Arctic shipping. It will also
have a host of sea and land applica-
tions such as crop monitoring, oil
spill detection, and resource explora-
tion. It will be geared specifically for
Canadian needs and its operations
will be primarily commercial rather
than scientific.
The system, able to measure such
things as soil and vegetation moisture
and soil salination, will have a role in