505 NASA Data Made Easy: Getting Started with Synthetic Aperture Radar
NASA’s airborne- and satellite-based instruments provide information for understanding a range of natural disasters, including flooding, earthquakes, and landslides, as well as anthropogenic land-use changes. Often, however, conditions are not ideal for making observations using optical sensors. Synthetic aperture radar, or SAR, which uses the microwave region of the electromagnetic spectrum, has an advantage in that it can penetrate cloud cover and “see through” darkness and weather, allowing a unique view of flood inundation, land-cover changes, and surface deformation caused by earthquakes and landslides. NASA data are free and open but can be challenging to use. NASA’s Earth Science Data Systems (ESDS) Program and NASA Earth Observing System Data and Information System (EOSDIS) Distributed Active Archive Centers (DAACs) have developed resources and tools to overcome this challenge. ESDS has developed data pathfinders on disasters and biological diversity that link to SAR datasets commonly used for disaster and forest monitoring and assessment; the Alaska Satellite Facility (ASF) DAAC has several tools for accessing, processing, and analyzing SAR data; and NASA SERVIR has developed a SAR handbook that provides the theoretical basics and applied exercises on the methodologies for forest monitoring and biomass estimation. In this workshop, we will demonstrate these resources for geologists wishing to get started using NASA SAR data. Cost: US$20 (Those who complete the course will receive three free GSA ebooks of their choice - a $20 value).
Thursday, 16 September 2021
10:00 AM - 2:00 PM
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