1. Jet Propulsion Laboratory California Institute of Technology The NASA/JPL Airborne Synthetic Aperture Radar System (AIRSAR) Yunling Lou Jet Propulsion Laboratory 4800 Oak Grove Drive Pasadena, CA 91109

2. Jet Propulsion Laboratory California Institute of Technology AIRSAR System Characteristics P Simultaneous three-frequency and quad-polarization system P P-band (0.68 m), L-band (0.25 m), and C-band (0.057 m) P Along-track (ATI) and cross-track (XTI) interferometry capabilities in L & C-band P Bandwidth: 20 MHz, 40 MHz, or 80 MHz (L-band only) P Look angle: typically 25 o ~ 62 o P Range swath: ~ 10 km (40 MHz bandwidth) or 15 km (20 MHz bandwidth), 5 km (80 MHz bandwidth) P Noise equivalent sigma0: -45 dB (P/L-band), -30 dB (C-band) P Platform: DC-8 at 8 km altitude

3. Jet Propulsion Laboratory California Institute of Technology CLPX Data Collection Plan The objectives of the AIRSAR data collection for CLPX were: P Obtain complete coverage of the three MSAs at Rabbit Ears, North Park, and Fraser in POLSAR mode to validate SWE algorithm P Generate DEM mosaics of the Rabbit Ears, North Park, and Fraser MSAs at 5 m posting P Collect AIRSAR data in different seasons in 2002 P Collect AIRSAR data in different snow conditions in March 2003

4. Jet Propulsion Laboratory California Institute of Technology CLPX Data Collection Summary P AIRSAR collected data at all three CLPX sites in February, March, and September of 2002 and in March of 2003 P Total number of flight lines: 187 P Total raw data volume: about 1.8 TB (935 minutes) P Total processed data volume is estimated to be about 280 GB

5. Jet Propulsion Laboratory California Institute of Technology Example POLSAR Imagery over Fraser, Colorado P/L/C-band overlay of Fraser270-1, collected on 27 Feb, 2002

6. Jet Propulsion Laboratory California Institute of Technology Example TOPSAR DEM over Rabbit Ears, Colorado C-band DEM of Rabbit Ears 270-1 collected on 13 Feb, 2002

7. Jet Propulsion Laboratory California Institute of Technology CLPX Data Processing Status P We have processed about 40 flight lines’ of data to date P We are requesting additional processing funding to speed up the processor throughput P We are requesting additional funding to develop software to generate geo-referenced radar data products in a standard GIS format and to generate mosaics of all three MSA sites.

8. Jet Propulsion Laboratory California Institute of Technology AIRSAR Data Access P Survey imagery of all the CLPX flight lines are available on AIRSAR’s website P JPEG files of all processed imagery are available on AIRSAR’s website P Request for duplicates of precision data products may be submitted to AIRSAR’s website after the one-year embargo period expires P AIRSAR’s website: http://airsar.jpl.nasa.gov/

9. Jet Propulsion Laboratory California Institute of Technology Summary F Soil moisture measurement (POLSAR) F Surface roughness in sparsely vegetated area (POLSAR) F Biomass measurement of forested area (POLSAR) F Snow cover and snow wetness classification (frequency diversity and TOPSAR data) F Canopy (type and freezing) classification F Topography measurement (TOPSAR) F Canopy height measurement (TOPSAR) AIRSAR data can contribute to the cold land processes experiment in the following area: Note: TOPSAR data are used to remove terrain dependence in the POLSAR data

10. Jet Propulsion Laboratory California Institute of Technology POLSAR Mode The characteristics of POLSAR mode are: P Simultaneous P, L, C-band quad-polarizations (HH, HV, VH, VV) P Selectable chirp bandwidth (range resolution): 20 MHz, 40 MHz, 80 MHz (L-band only) P Co-registered output imagery in slant range projection (typically 3.3 m x 4.5 m pixel spacing) P Output data in compressed Stokes matrix format (10 bytes/pixel) P Cross-polarization isolation: better than -20 dB P Noise-equivalent sigma0: < -45 dB in P & L-band, < -30 dB in C- band P Absolute calibration: 3 dB for P-band and 2 dB for L & C-band P Relative calibration: 0.5 dB between polarization channels and 1.5 dB between frequencies

11. Jet Propulsion Laboratory California Institute of Technology POLSAR Mode (cont.) P “sigma0c” program to extract arbitrary polarization combination from compressed Stokes matrix file. P Commercial software available to read AIRSAR data format: ENVI. P Polarimetric data are used to estimate soil moisture, surface roughness, forest biomass, and land cover classification. P Radars at longer wavelengths (P-band and L-band) are able to penetrate forest canopy and wet snow.

12. Jet Propulsion Laboratory California Institute of Technology TOPSAR Mode The characteristics of TOPSAR mode are: P Simultaneous C-band cross-track interferometry (V-pol), L-band cross-track interferometry or polarimetry, and P-band polarimetry P Selectable chirp bandwidth (range resolution): 20 MHz, 40 MHz P Co-registered output imagery in ground range projection P Output DEM file in 5 m posting (40 MHz bandwidth) or 10 m posting (20 MHz bandwidth) P RMS height error: 1 - 3 m for C-band and 5 - 10 m for L-band P C and L-band DEMs provide information on differential penetration into tree canopy

13. Jet Propulsion Laboratory California Institute of Technology TOPSAR Mode (cont.) Standard output data products include: P DEM file in 5 m or 10 m posting P VV magnitude imagery (calibrated radar backscattering cross- section) P Local incidence angle map P Correlation map P L-band (if available) and P-band compressed Stokes matrix files P All output files are co-registered in ground range projection P DEM is used for terrain correction on POLSAR data