MicroSAR

MicroSAR was a low-cost Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) system pioneered by EADS Astrium. MicroSAR, which could also be flown as a precursor to a higher performance system, would enable optimised low cost missions for Earth Observations, applicable to a variety of market sectors: agriculture, forestry, geology, maritime, infratructure mapping, surveillance and national security.

As part of the R&D phase, a prototype instrument was built and flown aboard an Islander airacraft. These flight trials entailed an operator aboard the aircraft to control the SAR instrument - typically this would involve loading configuration data, monitoring on-board temperature sensors, and collecting the science data for off-line image processing.

Involved in the design, development, integration of the MicroSAR controller application. This was a Windows application written in Visual C++ using a bespoke communications protocol over a TCP/IP link to the SAR hardware. It enabled the operator in the aircraft to control the MicroSAR instrument whilst in the aircraft

A screen shot of the MicroSAR controller application is shown below.