NASA-ISRO SAR Mission (NISAR) NASA-ISRO SAR (NISAR) Mission Science Users’ Handbook Current Project Phase C Planned Launch Date: December 2021 Document Date: April 9, 2018 Version 1 Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology. © 2018 All rights reserved. NISAR Science Users’ Handbook i Table of Contents 1 INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................................1 2 SCIENCE FOCUS AREAS .......................................................................................6 2.1 Solid Earth Processes: Earthquakes, Volcanoes, and Landslides ........................8 2.2 Ecosystems: Biomass, Disturbance, Agriculture and Inundation ........................10 2.3 Dynamics of Ice: Ice sheets, Glaciers, and Sea Ice ............................................12 2.4 Applications .........................................................................................................14 2.5 Disaster Response ..............................................................................................18 2.6 Ocean Studies and Coastal Processes ...............................................................19 3 MISSION MEASUREMENTS AND REQUIREMENTS ...........................................20 3.1 Measurements of surface deformation and change ............................................20 3.2 Landcover and Forest characterization with L-band SAR ...................................21 3.3 Requirements and Science Traceability ..............................................................23 3.4 Science Traceability to Mission Requirements ....................................................26 4 MISSION CHARACTERISTICS .............................................................................29 4.1 Observing Strategy .............................................................................................29 4.2 Reference Science Orbit .....................................................................................30 4.3 Mission Phases and Timeline..............................................................................34 4.4 Ground Segment Overview .................................................................................37 4.5 Telecommunications ...........................................................................................40 4.6 Mission Planning and Operations........................................................................42 4.7 Instrument design ................................................................................................44 4.8 Flight Systems/Spacecraft ..................................................................................49 4.9 Project Status ......................................................................................................51 5 MISSION DATA PRODUCTS.................................................................................52 5.1 L0 Data Products ................................................................................................54 5.2 L1 Data Products ................................................................................................56 5.3 L2 Data Products ................................................................................................59 5.4 Data Product Delivery/How to access NISAR data .............................................60 6 SCIENCE DATA PRODUCTS AND VALIDATION APPROACHES ......................62 6.1 Solid Earth Science products ..............................................................................62 6.1.1 Theoretical Basis of Algorithm.............................................................. 62 6.1.2 Implementation approach for algorithm ................................................ 66 6.1.3 Planned output products ...................................................................... 72 NISAR Science Users’ Handbook ii 6.2 Ecosystems Products- Biomass ..........................................................................72 6.2.1 Theoretical Basis of Algorithm.............................................................. 73 6.2.2 Implementation approach for algorithm ................................................ 80 6.2.1 Planned output products ...................................................................... 86 6.3 Ecosystems Products- Disturbance ....................................................................88 6.3.1 Theoretical basis of algorithm .............................................................. 88 6.3.2 Implementation approach for algorithm ................................................ 91 6.3.3 Planned output Products ...................................................................... 97 6.4 Ecosystems Products – Inundation .....................................................................97 6.4.1 Implementation approach for algorithm ................................................ 99 6.4.2 Planned output products .................................................................... 103 6.5 Ecosystems Products – Crop Monitoring .......................................................... 103 6.5.1 Theoretical basis of algorithm ............................................................ 104 6.5.2 Implementation approach for algorithm .............................................. 107 6.5.3 Planned Output Products ................................................................... 110 6.6 Cryosphere products- Ice Sheets ...................................................................... 110 6.6.1 Theoretical basis of algorithm ............................................................ 111 6.6.2 Implementation approach for algorithm .............................................. 114 6.6.3 Planned output products .................................................................... 123 6.7 Cryosphere products- Sea Ice........................................................................... 123 6.7.1 Theoretical basis of algorithm ............................................................ 124 6.7.2 Implementation approach for algorithm .............................................. 130 6.7.3 Planned output products .................................................................... 134 7 ERROR SOURCES .............................................................................................. 135 7.1 Polarimetric Error Sources ................................................................................ 135 7.2 Interferometric Error Sources ............................................................................ 137 8 CALIBRATION AND VALIDATION ..................................................................... 141 8.1 Background ....................................................................................................... 141 8.2 Calibration and Validation activities ................................................................... 142 8.3 Calibration/Validation Roles and Responsibilities ............................................. 150 9 CONCLUSIONS ................................................................................................... 152 10 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ................................................................................... 154 11 REFERENCES.................................................................................................. 156 12 GLOSSARY ...................................................................................................... 176 NISAR Science Users’ Handbook iii 13 APPENDIX A: HISTORICAL BACKGROUND FOR NISAR ............................ 177 14 APPENDIX B: NISAR SCIENCE TEAM ........................................................... 179 14.1 NASA Science Definition Team......................................................................... 179 14.2 ISRO Science Team ......................................................................................... 179 14.3 Project Science Team ....................................................................................... 179 15 APPENDIX C: KEY CONCEPTS ...................................................................... 183 15.1 Basic Radar concepts: Radar imaging, polarimetry, and interferometry ........... 183 15.1.1 Synthetic Aperture Radar ................................................................... 183 15.1.2 Polarimetry ......................................................................................... 185 15.1.3 Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) ............................. 187 15.2 Deformation-related Terminology ...................................................................... 189 15.2.1 Deformation and Displacement .......................................................... 189 15.2.2 Strain, Gradients, and Rotation .......................................................... 190 15.2.3 Stress and Rheology .......................................................................... 191 15.3 Ecosystems-Related Terminology ..................................................................... 191 15.3.1 Biomass ............................................................................................. 192 15.3.2 Disturbance ........................................................................................ 192 15.3.3 Recovery ............................................................................................ 192 15.3.4 Classification ...................................................................................... 193 16 APPENDIX D: BASELINE LEVEL 2