With StriX-α, the Synspective’s small SAR satellite, you can capture a 10km x 10km scene with a ground resolution of 1m x 1m. This is the image of a refinery plant in Kawasaki, Japan, taken by this Sliding Spotlight mode.
The circular objects lined up are oil tanks that temporarily store crude oil. The oil tank looks like this in the SAR image taken with X-band microwaves. Since the position of the tank’s roof moves up and down as the amount of crude oil in the oil tank increases or decreases, the SAR image can be used to estimate the amount of crude oil stored in the tank from the height of the roof and the diameter of the tank.
In the zoomed-up image of the oil tanks, you may find many dots on the roof . Do you know what these are?
These are metal rods that is installed on the roof many so that the lid does not stick to the bottom of the oil tank when the tank is empty. Due to the corner reflection of the metal rod and the surface of the lid, it appears like a dot on the image.
Continuous observations in the sliding spotlight mode allow us to observe changes in our economic activities.
Synspective “StriX-α” SAR Sliding Spotlight Imagery, a close up view of Tokyo International Airport