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Background

The Satellite Needs Working Group (SNWG)-2016 Assessment found that increasing NASA/Indian Space Research Organisation Synthetic Aperture Radar's (NISAR) data collection resolution from 20 MHz (6.25 m x 5 m) to 40 MHz (3.12 m x 5 m) and increasing the signal polarization diversity from dual-pol to quad-pol over North America (Canada to Panama, Hawaii and United States (U.S.) Territories) would widely support satellite needs for all of the U.S. Government land monitoring Agencies. While NISAR has the on-orbit capacity to collect the added data requested by the SNWG, NASA lacked sufficient downlink stations to meet the added data volume. The SNWG-2016 supported the installation of a new downlink station that increased the dedicated downlink capacity of NISAR by 9 Tbits/day.  

Status

Near Space Network (NSN) installed a new downlink station at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia to support the added data volume for NISAR’s SNWG activities. The NISAR Science Team held a virtual workshop with the SNWG agencies in July 2020 to discuss collection strategies enabled by this new downlink station. The SNWG community and the NISAR Science Team concluded that increasing the pulse rate frequency (PRF) to collect higher quality dual polarization data would have the most scientific benefit of the possible options. The increased PRF, the higher spatial resolution to 3.12 m x 5 m, and the SNWG-Global NISAR Soil Moisture product utilize the downlink bandwidth enabled by the new downlink station. 

Solution Characteristics

PlatformTemporal FrequencyHorizontal ResolutionGeographic DomainThematic Areas
NISAR12 days3.12 m x 5 mNorth America, Hawaii and U.S. TerritoriesCarbon Cycle and Ecosystems, Disaster Response, Earth Surface and Interior, Infrastructure Products/Other, Land Cover and Land Use Change, Ocean and Cryosphere, Water and Energy Cycle, Weather and Atmospheric Dynamics 

Societal Impact

The addition of a North America downlink station for NISAR enabled the highest resolution land imaging mode for North America and U.S. Territories. This capability will support measurement needs for every land monitoring agency and will provide better imagery for disaster response, crop assessment, infrastructure stability, and more. Furthermore, the new NISAR downlink station made it possible to produce a global soil moisture product and collect coastal North America ocean data that would not have been possible otherwise.

Solution Resources

Interested to learn more about this solution? For more information, see the SNWG High-Resolution North America NISAR Data fact sheet and visit the NISAR website hosted by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.