SAR Archive

The Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) data at the UNAVCO Archive includes satellite-transmitted and received radar scans of the Earth's surface. SAR data, analysed using Interferometric SAR (InSAR) techniques, can be used to model millimeter-to-centimeter scale deformation of the Earth's surface over regions tens to hundreds of kilometers across. These displacement fields are becoming essential guides for studies of tectonics, earthquake focal mechanisms, volcano behavior, hydrology, and public safety related to Earth hazards.

The UNAVCO SAR archive has several SAR data collections, including SAR data acquired by the WInSAR consortium and the GeoEarthScope project — the data for the latter now organized into the EarthScope ESA and CSA SAR collections. Each collection corresponds to specific data access which must be approved.

The off-site Supersites SAR archive (which is not a UNAVCO archive) has data supplied by the European Space Agency (ESA) and can be searched using the UNAVCO SAR API or GUI tools. UNAVCO also provides key operational support to Supersites, on behalf of the Group on Earth Observations (GEO), the European Space Agency (ESA), and WInSAR.

Researchers interested in obtaining SAR data from the UNAVCO SAR archive must apply for SAR data access, and those interested in obtaining SAR data from Supersites must register with ESA as described at Supersites.

 

 

InSAR interferogram of ground deformation along the San Andreas fault, 
from ESA Envisat data, by Yuri Fialko, University of California, San Diego, et al.
(Click for full size.)