CHAPTER 9
Alaska SAR Facility: The US Science Center for Sea Ice SAR Data
F. CARSEY, R. HARDING, C. WALES
Contents
9.1 Introduction...................................................................................... 189
9.1.1 ASF Vision and Mission ............................ ......................................... 190
9.1.2 Capabilities..................................................................................... 191
9.1.3 Reception-Area Masks ...................................................................... 193
9.1.4 McMurdo Ground Station ................................................................. 194
9.2 ASF in Polar Regions Science ............................................................... 195
9.3 Applications of SAR in Sea Ice Research................................................. 196
9.4 ASF Plans in Sea Ice Science and Operations Support.............................. 198
9.5 Long-Term View and Future Instruments.... ........................................... 198
References............................................................................................... 200
9.1
Introduction
In 1985 NASA approved the Alaska SAR Facility (ASF) at the Geophysical Institute of
the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF). The implementation was to be a joint effort
between UAF and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The objective of ASF was and is to supply scientific and operational data users with calibrated, timely satellite SAR data. In
1991 ASF began to receive data from the First European Remote Sensing Satellite (ERS1), in 1992 from the Japanese First Earth Resources Satellite (JERS-l), in 1995 from the
ERS-l follow-on, ERS-2, and in 1996 from the Canadian RADARSAT. In 1992 NASA and
the National Science Foundation (NSF) formed a joint initiative to implement at
McMurdo Base in Antarctica a satellite receiving station capable of acquiring and
recording data from SAR satellites, and in January, 1995, this installation was complete;
the McMurdo Ground Station is now operational and is acquiring data from ERS-l and
-2 and RADARSAT. Two research opportunities for analysis of ASF data have been published, the most recent in 1995, and there are about 175 approved projects for science
and applications work with ASF data. Two particularly interesting polar regions mapping projects are planned for RADARSAT in the immediate future: the weekly mapping
of the Arctic ice-covered water, which will be further processed into geophysical variables by the RADARSAT Geophysical Processor System (RGPS), and two complete
mappings of Antarctica in the RADARSAT Antarctic Mapping Project (RAMP). These
activities are discussed further below.
Analysis of SAR Data of the Polar Oceans
Edited by C. Tsatsoulis and R. Kwok
© Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 1998
Alaska SAR Facility: The US Science Center for Sea Ice SAR Data
F. CARSEY, R. HARDING, C. WALES
Contents
9.1 Introduction...................................................................................... 189
9.1.1 ASF Vision and Mission ............................ ......................................... 190
9.1.2 Capabilities..................................................................................... 191
9.1.3 Reception-Area Masks ...................................................................... 193
9.1.4 McMurdo Ground Station ................................................................. 194
9.2 ASF in Polar Regions Science ............................................................... 195
9.3 Applications of SAR in Sea Ice Research................................................. 196
9.4 ASF Plans in Sea Ice Science and Operations Support.............................. 198
9.5 Long-Term View and Future Instruments.... ........................................... 198
References............................................................................................... 200
9.1
Introduction
In 1985 NASA approved the Alaska SAR Facility (ASF) at the Geophysical Institute of
the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF). The implementation was to be a joint effort
between UAF and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The objective of ASF was and is to supply scientific and operational data users with calibrated, timely satellite SAR data. In
1991 ASF began to receive data from the First European Remote Sensing Satellite (ERS1), in 1992 from the Japanese First Earth Resources Satellite (JERS-l), in 1995 from the
ERS-l follow-on, ERS-2, and in 1996 from the Canadian RADARSAT. In 1992 NASA and
the National Science Foundation (NSF) formed a joint initiative to implement at
McMurdo Base in Antarctica a satellite receiving station capable of acquiring and
recording data from SAR satellites, and in January, 1995, this installation was complete;
the McMurdo Ground Station is now operational and is acquiring data from ERS-l and
-2 and RADARSAT. Two research opportunities for analysis of ASF data have been published, the most recent in 1995, and there are about 175 approved projects for science
and applications work with ASF data. Two particularly interesting polar regions mapping projects are planned for RADARSAT in the immediate future: the weekly mapping
of the Arctic ice-covered water, which will be further processed into geophysical variables by the RADARSAT Geophysical Processor System (RGPS), and two complete
mappings of Antarctica in the RADARSAT Antarctic Mapping Project (RAMP). These
activities are discussed further below.
Analysis of SAR Data of the Polar Oceans
Edited by C. Tsatsoulis and R. Kwok
© Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 1998