SAR-10

Buenos Aires, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires | What on Earth is Synthetic Aperture Radar?

Ten Powerful Facts About SAR

High-Level Project Summary

Did you know that there are a lot of signals bouncing around you? Many of that signals are coming from orbiting devices, telling you about our planet's health and preventing a wide variety of risks. These machines speak a very complex "data-puzzled" pretty little human-readable language. Converting that data pieces into useful information like an enhanced weather forecast is the big prize! To achieve that, we need to understand how these technologies work. Today we present: Synthetic Aperture Radar.

Detailed Project Description

SAR technology, which has been with us for more than half a century, continues to be a cutting-edge methodology for various scientific applications. This project consists of a video clip that summarizes 10 key facts related to Synthetic Aperture Radar Technology.

10_>: Harmless

Synthetic aperture radar sends radio frequency signals which are partly absorbed by some objects and partly reflected, scattered, deflected and / or changed in polarization as the case may be, and then returned to the device, which takes note of all these changes and then calculate the shape and size of those objects, such as soils, water, forests, ice or buildings to generate an image of them. Here comes the important thing: SAR uses frequencies ranging from 300 MHz to 40,000 MHz, more usually between 0.3 and 12 GHz; The entire range of the SAR spectrum is within the category of non-ionizing radiation (like cell phones, Radio and TV), which means that these signals cannot affect the chemical composition of any substance or living being.

09_>: Weatherproof

The SAR can choose signals of different wavelengths, which allows it to carry out scans from the sky to a little below the sea or the ground, being able to observe through clouds, smoke banks, vegetation, both during the day and at night, and it is also capable of accurately detecting the day and night zones without being affected by the climatic conditions of each zone.

08_>: Resource optimized

The Synthetic Aperture Radar can work in land, air and marine vehicles, in satellites and space stations, achieving high resolution images with relatively small antennas, being ideal for situations where the weight to be transported matters. Without synthetic aperture you would need gigantic radars like those in old black and white war movies... or even larger ones!

07_>: Enviroment-Friendly

This technology is extremely useful for keeping a record of the status of large bodies of water, keeping information about floating garbage islands, oil spills and migrations of some animals up to date. In land areas it can monitor the state of vegetation.

06_>: Geological observation

Due to its high resolution and the large areas it can cover, it is a great ally to study the composition and behavior of different types of terrain, both on Earth and in other celestial bodies, being able to map the topography of the ground and subsoil.

05_>: Disaster predicting

Observation is everything. Knowing how to respond to an emergency is important, knowing the characteristics of an emergency long before it occurs is vital to prevent damage to life, property and the environment. Through the use of SAR, it is possible to make an early detection of earthquakes and storms, warn about tsunamis and react in time to fires or floods.

04_>: Multi-platform

Most of the programs to work with SAR can run on different operating systems and architectures, even on tablets and mobile phones, both from web interfaces, as installed or portable applications.

03_>: Collaboration

People, governments, NGOs and companies around the world work together in the scientific and business fields, and in the protection of the environment, collaborating for the good of humanity.

02_>: Open Source

Since 2006, all observation programs (ALOS-1, NISAR, TanDEM-L, SilvaCarbon, SERVIR, and many others) have made the commitment to keep the generated data files free and open, that is, free of charge and accessible from all over the world. world. Also most of the tools to use SAR maintain the Open Source philosophy (ISCE, GMTSAR, ROI_PAC, DORIS). Data files can be verified, and software tools can be studied, revised, and even improved by the community. No one can prohibit access to this technology or its study.

01_>: Not only for nerds!

Different SAR missions produce a large amount of raw data and information processed at a level that to many people can seem overwhelming. Even so, there is a large amount of documentation produced by official organizations and the community: tutorials, webinars, YouTube channels, hackathons ... there is everything to go from zero to hero with enough dedication, accessible from any smartphone or computer. Go ahead!

Space Agency Data

DORIS InSAR Processor: http://doris.tudelft.nl/

The SAR Handbook, Comprehensive Methodologies for Forest Monitoring and Biomass Estimation. First edition. Published electronically April 2019. DOI: 10.25966/nr2c-s697 http://www.SERVIRglobal.net

Passive sensors: https://earthdata.nasa.gov/learn/remote-sensors/passive-sensors

What is Synthetic Aperture Radar? https://earthdata.nasa.gov/learn/backgrounders/what-is-sar

Synthetic Aperture Radar Marine User's Manual: http://www.sarusersmanual.com/

SAR Data Pre-Processing Steps. SOURCE: Meyer, Franz. “Spaceborne Synthetic Aperture Radar – Principles, Data Access, and Basic Processing Techniques.” SAR Handbook: Comprehensive Methodologies for Forest Monitoring and Biomass Estimation. Eds. Flores, A., Herndon, K., Thapa, R., Cherrington, E. NASA. DOI: 10.25966/ez4f-mg98

References

Software:

Web browser: Firefox 92.0-2

Image edition: GIMP

Audio Edition/Mastering: Audacity

Video Edition: Kdenlive

Music Edition, Sequencing: LMMS

Operating System:

ArcoLinux x86_64

Kernel: 5.14.6-zen1-1-zen

Packages: 1729 (pacman)

Shell: bash 5.1.8

Resolution: 1366x768

DE: Cinnamon 5.0.5

Hardware:

CPU: Intel i3-3120M (4) @ 2.500GHz

GPU: Intel 3rd Gen Core processor Graphics Controller

Memory: 5174MiB / 7403MiB

Additional references:

The Hepburn Tropo Index (HTI): http://doris.tudelft.nl/

Curso de Diexismo AM/FM, Santiago Roland CX1DR: https://tube.undernet.uy/video-channels/santiago_channel/videos

Antenna - Build A Shortwave Antenna (By Donald I Butler N4UJW)