| What are the roles of the various organizations responsible for the SOAR Program? |
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SOAR is a joint partnership program between MacDonald Dettwiler and Associates (MDA) and the Canadian Government through the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) and Natural Resource Canada's Canada Centre for Remote Sensing (CCRS).
Each organization has taken a role in defining the programs within SOAR. The CSA is supporting the SOAR Coordination office to act as a liaison between proposers and the Sponsors.
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| What does this program offer me? |
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The program will provide RADARSAT-2 data free of charge to candidates whose proposals were selected. In addition, it will provide an opportunity to submit papers for publication in the Canadian Journal of Remote Sensing.
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| Are there additional funding opportunities available? |
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For Canadian industry, the CSA has funding programs for earth-observation applications development. It is possible that some funding can be made available through this program for projects falling within the specified guidelines.
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| My research will lead to proprietary knowledge. How will this be handled? |
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All proposals will be reviewed in confidence.
For commercially confidential proposals, organizations may wish to develop a strategic partnership with MDA for commercially viable products that are developed using RADARSAT-2 data. This is not a requirement for proposal acceptance but we would be pleased to discuss this with you further. Alternatively, proposals can be submitted and reviewed by Canadian Government partners only.
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| Eligibility states: "Preferences will be given to proposals that address the needs and requirements of end-users". What does this mean? |
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The SOAR program is looking to address operationally or commercially viable solutions for many of today's problems and issues. Incorporating the needs of organizations or end-users in the design of your project will ensure an adequate assessment of RADARSAT-2's contribution to the problem is made. Practical applied application development is seen as a major focus of SOAR. Projects that address these issues and validate the results with an end-user will be seen as favourable projects to support.
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| When will RADARSAT-2 data become available for my project if I am successful? |
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The launch of RADARSAT-2 is planned for the summer of 2007. Commissioning will take approximately 3 months. After this, data will start to become available for SOAR projects. Projects, which require calibrated data, will be provided data once the required beam modes have been certified as calibrated.
SOAR projects will have a lower acquisition planning priority than commercial orders but every attempt will be made to meet project requirements.
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| What are the existing operationally successful RADARSAT-1 applications and markets? |
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Visit http://www.mdacorporation.com/geospatial/,
www.space.gc.ca,
www.ccrs.nrcan.gc.ca
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| What are the potential applications of RADARSAT-2? |
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Visit our web site at www.radarsat2.info. Here you will be able to link to both a document prepared for the CSA by CCRS on the Applications Potential of RADARSAT-2 - a Preview. As well, it has completed a summary outlining the operational and commercial applications where RADARSAT-2 has high potential.
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| What if I want to research RADARSAT -1 type features rather than the new enhanced features of RADARSAT-2. |
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The focus of the SOAR program is to provide opportunity to explore the information that can be extracted from the new features of RADARSAT-2.
There are other ways in which to obtain RADARSAT-1 data for research purposes at non-commercial prices outside this program. For information on these programs please visit the CSA web site (http://www.space.gc.ca).
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| How many scenes will I be able to receive? |
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The exact number of scenes will be dependent on the project and its identified needs. An upper limit of scenes will be established based on application area. The SOAR is not a means of obtaining large quantities of data for operational use, but rather a mechanism for testing the new features of the satellite.
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| Where will the symposium be held at which we must present our results? |
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The final symposium will be held in Canada within two years from data availability at a time and location yet to be determined. Mid-term workshops will be held in conjunction with a number of international symposiums approximately one year after RADARSAT-2 data is available for SOAR projects.
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