China now has a geosynchronous radar imaging satellite, a world's first

Our latest video talks about China's high orbit radar imaging satellite. Why is it unique in the world? How might its capabilities help China?

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[vorlonzevatron]

To help locate US warships before sending DF17, DF26 and DF27 with an upper range of 8000km and terminal Mach of 12.5

[vlhc]

There's an important capability the video missed: invers-SAR. SAR relies on relative motion of observer and target to synthesize the aperture, If target is stationary then only observer motion matters, but ships move up and down with waves and aircraft move at high speed, and that motion can be used to achieve much greater sensitivity than for stationary targets, especially from GEO.

Infact the Chinese paper that described how this GEO-SAR works explicitly mentioned that, with two or more satellites (multi-static configuration) they could potentially achieve fire control quality lock on airborne targets, which combined with persistence and coverage enables intercontinental air to air missiles.

[whiteshark]

Everytime Binkov makes a China video. He gotta collect a year worth of salt.

[thomasromanelli]

Not an unexpected development given the general trajectory of PLAN advancements with a focus on the SCS area, and specifically, the ability to create redundancy in the needed "kill chain" for long-range anti-ship ballistic/cruise missiles as part of China's established AA/AD strategy. I would respectfully disagree that this is a "unique capability", as the USAF and other US agencies maintain a network of some 40 satellites at the 35-40k kilometer altitude in GS mode.

What is concerning is that the PLAN is deploying this kind of capability in concert with ballistic missiles that have reached out to that 40k perigee- which means that previously "untouchable" USAF assets are no longer immune to disruption/destruction. The next conflict will not be merely about delivering kinetic payloads, but aggressively degrading the same capabilities of the adversary.

[xj]

Geostationary satellites provide the ability to monitor huge areas with lower resolution ~BUT~ the geostationary satellites can pass location data to low earth orbit spy satellites and they can take ultra-high resolution photographs.

[sapphyrus]

It feels like we'll be stuck on Earth forever due to satellite destruction in WW3 clouding entire orbit with shrapnel.

[CuriousPersonUSA]

In the case of high resolution optical satellites. ML anomaly detection algorithms could be used in the zoomed out setting to figure out which tile to zoom into instead of performing a sequential search. The US have geo satellites since 1960 for ICBM early warning detection. The US Space force is working on multiple satellite constellations in different orbits including geo. It is going to get really busy up there soon.

[Leo-lqvq]

You don't need to monitor an entire sea and continent. It's like saying you must see all possible moves when playing chess... you look just for the most probable moves and focus on scenarios that come out of them only. :D So I'd say it's a damn good piece of equipment they got.

[Healsi]

Actually, spatial resolution in SAR imagery is not affected by the altitude of the antenna. This satellite's resolution might be 20 meters indeed. It would be good to check whether it is the same for Azimuth and Range resolutions or if its better in one of these.

It is also important to consider the aquisition modes that would be used to gather the imagery, because spotlight mode can improve image resoulution dramatically for small areas, such as the fleet 's current position or an airfield.

[IDSGT]

As implied by thumbnail, resolution doesn’t have to be great in order to handle persistent tracking of carrier groups. 🤔 We’ll just have to see.

[TerryE-UK]

Geosynch SAR is a bit of an oxymoron. Physics and Math still apply. SAR essentially use a 2D FFT on a non-linear point mesh to the chirp data to create a 2D complex image return. The angular resolution is constrained by churp freq range, ping times and tracking rates. It's difficult getting decent resolution at a 250 km orbit. GEO is ~ 130x further out and the ground rate of a GEO 8 track far far less, so SAR resolutions are going to be in the ~1km+ range

[Steven-ndpz]

Radar signals from satellites and their communication link with their base earth station can be electronically jammed just like ordinary radio waves.

[Anoncore]

The idea is not only surveillance over parts of earth, but it’s a mean to survey what satellite is surveilling them, a mean to identify them, and soon a mean to take them down, better yet, a mean to take down all gps satellite, which are needed to use any weapon gps based .

[looinrims]

It’s fine until they get the Ion Cannon

Then we have a problem

[Outrigger]

The new Ford class aircraft carriers have a massive increase in electrical power and as a result, are capable of some very exotic electronic warfare. Outgoing CNO Admiral Richardson said, "US carriers have never been more survivable since, and during, World War II."

[mikets]

learning how SAR works may help in producing meaningful videos.

[douginorlando]

A few satellites orbiting 10 times closer could compliment the continuous geosynchronous imagery with 10 times higher resolution snap shots every hour. 2400 mile high orbit is still 10 times higher than than traditional imaging satellites, and 10 times higher altitude means 100 times more earth surface is visible.

[techgoo]

Radar imaging means aiming a radar beam on an area and sensing the reflected beam. Doing this from a distance of 36K km would require a powerful beam and very sensitive sensors. Are those solar panels enough to generate the power for the beam? Also, can radar beam be reflected from sea surface?

[Chuck]

You didn't mention that, this becomes a very valuable space born asset for the Chinese. Radar imaging from that distance? That means it's LOUD (RF speaking), which makes it easy to target. And since it's has a long TOT/stare, it's easy to predict where it's gonna be.

This is basically just trying to leverage low tech, for roles they're not intended for. Engineering concepts, and time, have leaned away from this for these very reasons.

[dylangtech]

Another GEO advantage: Getting intel on the satellite is a lot harder, as it’s practically impossible to have a flyby of it without being noticed….. and PLA Space has done this before with American GEO satellites