EO·Atlas
SAR-C (Gaofen-3)
C-band synthetic aperture radar instrument carried by Gaofen-3, with 12 operating modes, single, dual and quad polarisation support, 1 m highest-resolution mode and up to 650 km addressable field of regard.
SAR-C (Gaofen-3) is the C-band synthetic aperture radar instrument on Gaofen-3, using active microwave imaging for orbital SAR collection.[1][2] The instrument operates at 5.4 GHz and supports single, dual and quad-polarisation operation across incidence angles from 10 to 60 degrees.[1][2] Its mode set includes 12 imaging modes, including high-resolution, Stripmap, ScanSAR and wave-mode operation.[1][2] The sensor uses a 15 m antenna, reaches 1 m highest-resolution mode, covers 10 km swath in that mode and has up to 650 km field of regard for large-swath collection.[1] SAR backscatter, InSAR surface deformation and polarimetric SAR decomposition are demonstrated through Gaofen-3.[1][2] Utilization is recorded from 2016 to 2030 across Gaofen SAR-series flight units.[1]
Compositional position
- SAR backscatter imagingvia Gaofen-3 (GF-3)
Gaofen-3 SAR-C provides operational C-band SAR backscatter imaging with 12 imaging modes.
- Polarimetric SAR - target decompositionvia Gaofen-3 (GF-3)
Gaofen-3 SAR-C public summaries report full-polarization SAR imaging and single, dual and quad polarisation support.
- InSAR - surface deformationvia Gaofen-3 (GF-3)
Gaofen-3 repeat-pass interferometric SAR experiments and WMO measurement evaluation support InSAR use.
None on record.
- [1]SAR-C (GF-3) instrument record, WMO OSCARthird party2026-06-16
- [2]The Spaceborne Synthetic Aperture Radar Images of Gaofen-3peer reviewed2026-06-16