EcoSAR: Ecological Synthetic Aperture Radar Development

This article contains information on EcoSAR. EcoSAR is the advanced airborne polar metric and single pass interferometric P-band SAR instruments under development at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, through NASA's instrument Incubator Program (IIP). EcoSar will provide two and three-dimensional fine scale measurements of terrestrial ecosystem structure and biomass onboard the NASA P3 aircraft. These measurements directly support science requirements for the study of the carbon cycle and its relationship to climate change. To evaluate plant growth on earth from an airborne platform, both construction of the radar and subsequent testing of the radar using advanced radar test equipment to help develop and improve the radar system was necessary. This article describes the development, testing, and deployment of the EcoSAR system.