Description
A limitation of optical satellite remote sensing is that it depends on cloudless, well-illuminated areas to produce quality data. This is especially problematic for collecting data during nighttime, around storms, and in densely-forested areas. Synthetic aperture radar (SAR) is a solution for many of these obstacles. SAR can observe Earth's surface day and night, through most weather conditions, and the signal can penetrate the vegetation canopy. There are a number of existing SAR datasets from current and past airborne and satellite missions as well as exciting upcoming missions. This online training led by NASA's Applied Remote Sensing Training program (ARSET) focuses on building the skills needed to acquire and understand SAR data, including polarimetric and interferometric SAR (PolSAR and InSAR) as well as potential applications.