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The Side-Looking Real Aperature Radar (SLRAR) on Cosmos-1500 was the
first spaceborne SLRAR. The instrument was constructed and developed
at the Institute of Radiophysics and Electonic (IRE) of the Ukranian
Academy of Sciences to provide 2-dimensional images of ice and
oceanographic scenes. The SLRAR operated at a frequency of 9.5 GHz in
vertical (V) polarization providing 0.8 x 2.5 km resolution and a
swath width of 425 km. SLRAR data were processed on-board and
transmitted directly to ships and automated data receiving stations.
The data were used to make high resolution radar maps of ice cover in
the Arctic and Antarctic. The data were also used to derive wind speed
and direction at the ocean surface. All-weather radar imagery were
provided to the user community in real-time by means of a 137.4 MHz
Automatic Picture Transmission (APT) channel. Imagery from the SLRAR on-board
Cosmos-1500 was used to rescue about 50 Soviet ships trapped in heavy
ice in the Arctic during the polar winter of 1983. In 1986, real-time
data was used to rescue the inhabitants of a research station in
Antarctica. The SLRAR instrument was a precursor to other radars used
on the oceanographic series of satellites (Okean-1. -2, and -3). Similar
instruments were used on the Cosmos-1602 and Cosmos-1766 spacecraft.
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