RADARSAT-1 was a joint program between Canada and the U.S. The basic arrangement was that Canada was building the spacecraft and the associated ground segment, and the U.S. government, through NASA, was providing the launch vehicle, the launcher. In return, they were granted access to some of the imagery from RADARSAT-1.
So throughout the life of RADARSAT-1, the U.S. government, primarily NASA and NOAA, used RADARSAT-1 for scientific and operational needs. NOAA and the National Ice Center in the U.S. also have a need to monitor the ice conditions around Alaska. In fact, we do have a joint operations centre between Canada and the U.S. to monitor the ice conditions around North America.
So the RADARSAT-1 program was conceived as a joint Canada-U.S. program whereby we do share data occasionally.