1. Synthetic Aperture Radar at The Alaska SAR Facility
Chris Wyatt
Data Specialist
(907)

2. Overall Mission
The Alaska SAR Facility provides satellite data, software tools and information to the science community and government operational agencies in support of polar research and earth science.

3. What is SAR?
Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) is an active remote sensing technology that uses microwave energy to illuminate the surface.
The system records the elapsed time and energy of the return pulse received by the antenna.
At wavelengths of about 2 cm, these instruments can collect data about the Earth’s surface day or night, regardless of cloud cover.

4. Backscatter
Definition: the amount of energy returned to the receiver, which determines the brightness of the pixel
Backscatter is a function of:
wavelength and incidence angle of the radar signal
roughness and dielectric constant of the reflecting surface

5. Applications of SAR Sea ice characteristics Flooding Archaeology
Ocean circulation
Wetlands
Structural geology
Land cover
Volcanology
Glaciology
Phytoplankton distribution
Soil moisture
Crustal deformation

6. ASF User Community Worldwide user community 170+ projects
Multiple principle investigators
Graduate students
Undergraduate students
Interns
Sun workstations and SGIs

7. Foreign Missions Supported

8. SAR User Tools Development Status

9. EOS-HDF data available at ASF
Current data availability
SAR imagery is available only in CEOS format
Derived products (GPS products) are available in custom binary or ascii formats
Future plans
ASF would like to support EOS-HDF formatted SAR imagery products - this will most likely occur when the ECS is installed at ASF
ASF currently assessing applicability of EOS-HDF for RGPS products (ice motion, ice age, ice thickness, open water fraction, melt onset/freeze up, wind/temp/pressure field products)