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Geographic Synthetic Aperture Radar
(GEOSAR) - A new generation Radar System
suitable for Geoscience Applications in the
Asia-Pacific Region
Dr Ian J. Tapley and Professor Anthony
K. Milne
Horizon Geoscience Consulting
P/L,
Perth, Western Australia,
Phone +61
(0)8 9448 3544
Email: Ian.Tapley@csiro.au
Ms Janet Dewar
EarthData
International, Washington DC.
Email: jdewar@earthdata.com
AbstractGeoSAR
is a new-generation airborne radar system
designed for precision mapping of terrain
attributes and landcover inventory in tropical,
temperate and arid environments. Engineered by
NASA-JPL its development builds on the highly
successful, scientific achievements of
polarimetric and interferometric datasets
collected during airborne AIRSAR missions and
Space Shuttle radar programs. Currently operated
by EarthData International (USA) for civilian
and military uses, GeoSAR is configured to
record in a single pass, simultaneous X- and
P-band, dual polarimetric, interferometric data
in two 10 km wide swaths on the left and right
sides of the Gulfstream jet aircraft at an
altitude of 10 km above the ground level. In
tree-covered terrain, DEMs and ortho-rectified
radar reflectance maps are generated near the
tops of tree canopy and beneath the foliage,
whilst in a dry-soil environment, surface and
sub-surface geometries will be observed.
The modelling of bald-earth DEMs from
the combined X- and P-band data will be enhanced
by a co-mounted LIDAR system to provide precise
ground control points to calibrate the DEMs and
simplify the mosaicking process of adjacent
flightlines of data. In addition, the LIDAR will
add valuable information about tree canopy
structures that together with the polarimetric
detail from P-band will enable calculations of
timber volumes or biomass.
Deployment of
GeoSAR is scheduled for January-February 2006 to
coincide with the dry season in east and
south-east Asia providing optimum definition of
archaeological sites in the medieval arc of
countries from Sri Lanka to Myanmar, Thailand,
Cambodia, Vietnam, Malaysia and Indonesia. In
addition, GeoSAR data will be most useful for
modelling the regional impact of natural
disasters such as flooding, lahars and
landslides. Entry into Australia and New Zealand
will be driven by the support of discipline and
commercial groups wanting to apply these data to
applications including topographic mapping,
trafficability analyses, land-use planning,
design of transportation routes, forest
inventory, wetland mapping and floodplain
management.
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