ICEYE adds Scan Wide mode to its SAR satellite imaging capabilities

Finnish synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellite operator ICEYE announced on 12 August 2025 the launch of its newest imaging mode known as Scan Wide.

The new mode offers customers the largest scene size available in ICEYE’s portfolio to date; with Scan Wide customers can now image an area of 60,000 km² with a single scene. Scan Wide also supports multi-frame tasking, enabling customers to capture 120,000 km² in a single acquisition.

Customers can use Scan Wide to conduct large-area intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR). This particularly useful for maritime applications, such as identifying suspicious activity like illicit ship-to-ship trans-shipment or vessels that have disabled their Automatic Identification Systems (AIS) to mask illegal activity. Once these threats are identified with Scan Wide, users can deploy ICEYE’s 25 cm and 50 cm modes like Dwell Precise and Spot Fine to better characterise the activity.

Beyond defence applications, the Scan Wide footprint and resolution are well-suited for applications such as oil spill detection and monitoring. Scan Wide is supported on all satellites in the rapidly growing ICEYE fleet.

Scan Wide extends ICEYE’s comprehensive range of imaging modes, from 25 cm resolution Dwell and Spot modes with a 5×5 km footprint to the 27 m resolution of Scan Wide with its 200×300 km footprint, with multiple resolution and scene size combinations between these extremes.

“By adding Scan Wide to our imaging portfolio, we enable users to ‘zoom out’ to search wide areas and then ‘zoom in’ for high-resolution collections of targets of interest, tipping and cueing all within the same, seamless user experience,” John Cartwright, ICEYE’s senior vice president of product for data, explained in a company press release. “ICEYE is unique among operators of its class in this extraordinary flexibility. We will continue to take advantage of our satellite technology to innovate new products that help our customers answer questions faster and more reliably, providing a powerful information advantage,” he added.

ICEYE owns and operates the world’s largest SAR satellite constellation, delivering unlimited global access and the highest frequency revisits on the market. ICEYE SAR satellites provide 25 cm ground resolution, enabling accurate object detection and situational awareness in all weather and light conditions. To date, ICEYE has launched 54 SAR satellites into orbit for use by the company and its customers.