SAR Technology and its Applications Training Workshop

Tuesday 22nd November 2011, The International Space Innovation Centre (ISIC), Harwell, Oxfordshire

The Centre of Earth Observation Instrumentation held its third one-day training workshop on “SAR Technology and its applications”.

Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) is a major technique for EO of increasing in importance in the UK. Keynote speakers included Shaun Quegan from the University of Sheffield, Thuy le Toan (CESBIO, Toulouse), also David Hall and Martin Cohen from Astrium. These speakers have experience of designing SAR systems and and utilising the data to investigate key problems in Earth Observation.

The workshop built on the highly successful first and secon CEOI training workshops and was particularly timely given the importance of SAR in the current European EO portfolio (ENVISAT, Sentinel-1 SAR, BIOMASS). It included presentations from experts on SAR technology, the challenges of designing world class instruments, some core SAR techniques, and EO applications. The workshop included sessions where participants became familiar with packages used to design SAR missions and to examine the trade-offs between scientific, operational and payload value.

The workshop was aimed at both academia and industry including research scientists, technologists and potential instrument PIs, both those anticipating taking on such leadership roles now and also those PDRAs/PhDs and graduates already in industry who may aspire to do so as their careers develop. The workshop was designed to provide valuable insight into the design and application process and to provide an excellent opportunity to network.

Presentations from the workshop are available below:

Part 1: SAR Instruments and TechnologySpeaker
Perspectives on SARShaun Quegan
Introduction to SAR Techniques and TechnologiesDave Hall
SAR Implementation TechnologyMartin Cohen
Part 2: Towards SAR data
Physical Content of SAR DataThuy Le Toan
SAR as a Measurement Device: Data, Images and InterferometryShaun Quegan
Part 3: SAR Mission Design Workshop
An Introduction to the Workshop
Workshop: Designing a SAR Mission
Presentation of Model Results
Part 5: SAR and it's applications
SAR Quiz: the answers
Land Applications of SAR Remote SensingThuy Le Toan