Abstract
Repeat pass radar interferometric measurements from spaceborne SARs such as ERS, JERS and Radarsat have become standard measurements for understanding geophysical processes associated with volcanoes, earthquakes and ice sheet dynamics. Satellite repeat pass time intervals range from 24-44 days for presently operational or planned to be operational systems and a spaceborne SAR system designed specifically to meet the needs of the solid earth science community had a proposed repeat pass time interval of 8-10 days. For certain geophysical processes of interest such as magma flow, post seismic rebound and some fast moving glaciers these time intervals are too great to fully resolve the geophysical processes of interest. As part of the NASA Instrument Incubator Program we proposed an airborne SAR suited to making rapid repeat radar interferometric measurements to study such geophysical processes. NASA requested this capability be hosted on the new class of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) or minimally piloted vehicles (MPV) to support sustained observational intervals and reduce costs for collecting airborne science data. This talk will discuss some of the platform selection criteria and issues, aspects of the radar design, some of the data processing issues unique to airborne repeat pass processing for deformation measurements.