WMO OSCAR | Details for Instrument InSAR

No JavaScript detected
Usage of this Website will be severly limited without JavaScript. Please enable JavaScript in your Browser.

Instrument: InSAR

Instrument details

Acronym	InSAR
Full name	Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar
Purpose	Accurate topography and its changes to monitor biomass, ecosystems and ice
Short description	L-band (1.2 GHz) with more combinations of polarisation and interferometric capability
Background	New development
Scanning Technique	Pushbroom, swath 340 km
Resolution	10 m
Coverage / Cycle	Global coverage in two weeks
Mass	600 kg	Power	1600 W	Data Rate

Providing Agency	NASA
Instrument Maturity	Backed by strong heritage
Utilization Period:	TBD
Last update:	2013-12-22

Detailed characteristics

Satellites this instrument is flying on

Note: a red tag indicates satellites no longer operational, a green tag indicates operational satellites, a blue tag indicates future satellites

Deformation, Ecosystem Structure, and Dynamics of Ice (NASA)
- DESDynI (see instrument status) TBD - TBD

Instrument classification

Earth observation instrument
Active and radio-occultation sensor
Imaging radar (SAR)

WIGOS Subcomponents

Subcomponent 1
SAR imagers and altimeters
SAR imager

Mission objectives

Primary mission objectives

Biomass
Fraction of vegetated land
Land cover
Land surface topography
Oil spill cover
Sea-ice cover
Sea-ice type
Soil moisture at surface

Evaluation of Measurements

The following list indicates which measurements can typically be retrieved from this category of instrument. To see a full Gap Analysis by Variable, click on the respective variable.

Note: table can be sorted by clicking on the column headers
Note: * Primary mission objective.

Search:

Variable	Relevance for measuring this variable	Operational limitations	Explanation
Glacier cover	1 - primary	Long time for mapping.	L-band SAR for accurate boundary detection
Sea-ice cover*	1 - primary	No specific limitation.	L-band SAR
Biomass*	2 - very high	Index only.. Infrequent coverage.	L-band sensitive to total biomass
Glacier motion	2 - very high	Infrequent coverage.	L-band SAR for interferometry between images taken at time intervals
Glacier topography	2 - very high	Long time for mapping.	L-band SAR for interferometry between images taken at time intervals
Ice sheet topography	2 - very high	Long time for mapping.	L-band SAR for interferometry between images taken at time intervals
Land surface topography*	2 - very high	Long time for mapping.	L-band SAR for interferometry between images taken at time intervals
Oil spill cover*	2 - very high	Infrequent coverage.	L-band SAR
Soil moisture (in the roots region)	2 - very high	Infrequent coverage.	L-band SAR
Soil moisture at surface*	2 - very high	Infrequent coverage.	L-band SAR
Fire fractional cover	3 - high	Infrequent coverage.	L-band SAR. High resolution, for fire boundary detection
Sea-ice type*	3 - high	No specific limitation.	L-band SAR. Type interpreted as age/roughness
Snow water equivalent	4 - fair	Change detection only.. Infrequent coverage.	L-band SAR. SWE is retrieved by grigging with data from ground networks
Dominant wave direction	5 - marginal	Infrequent coverage.	L-band SAR. Variable measured by spectral analysis of "imagettes"
Dominant wave period	5 - marginal	Infrequent coverage.	L-band SAR. Variable measured by spectral analysis of "imagettes"
Fraction of vegetated land*	5 - marginal	No specific limitation.	L-band SAR
Land cover*	5 - marginal	No specific limitation.	L-band SAR
Significant wave height	5 - marginal	Highly indirect.. Infrequent coverage.	L-band SAR. Retrieved by spectral analysis of "imagettes". Boundary condition necessary for the retrieval
Soil type	5 - marginal	No specific limitation.	L-band SAR
Vegetation type	5 - marginal	No specific limitation.	L-band SAR
Wave directional energy frequency spectrum	5 - marginal	Infrequent coverage.	L-band SAR. Variable measured by spectral analysis of "imagettes"
Sea-ice elevation	5 - marginal	No specific limitation.	L-band SAR. Sea ice elevation measured by interferometry
Sea-ice thickness	5 - marginal	Change detection only.	L-band SAR. Sea ice elevation measured by interferometry. Thickness inferred by ice model

Showing 1 to 23 of 23 entries