Alaska Satellite Facility - Distributed Active Archive Center

AIRSAR

Airborne Synthetic Aperture Radar (AIRSAR) was an all-weather imaging tool able to penetrate through clouds and collect data at night. The longer wavelengths could also penetrate into the forest canopy and, in extremely dry areas, through thin sand cover and dry snow pack.

AIRSAR served as a NASA radar technology testbed for demonstrating new radar technology and acquiring data for the development of radar processing techniques and applications.

Data Products

Dataset Description:

  • Airborne SAR — synthetic aperture radar
  • 1990-2004
  • Primarily covers the United States; other tropical locations included
  • Datasets identified by place name

Downloadable Data:

  • PolSAR: 3-frequency polarimetry
  • TOPSAR: C-, L-, and P-band Compressed Stokes Matrix, C-band TIFF, DEM
  • ATI — Along-track interferometry: Interferograms

More detailed product descriptions are available from the AIRSAR website

Find AIRSAR data. No proposals required. 

Coverage Maps

AIRSAR Technical Specs

P-band L-band C-band
Frequency/wavelength 0.45 GHz/67 cm 1.26 GHz/23 cm 5.31 GHz/5.7 cm
Polarization Full Full Full
Range Resolution 7.5 m 3.75 m 1.875 m
Swath Width (nominal) 10 km 10 km 10 km
Off-Nadir Angle (normal) 20-60° 20-60° 20-60°

How to Cite Data

Cite data in publications such as journal papers, articles, presentations, posters, and websites. Please send copies of, or links to, published works citing data, imagery, or tools accessed through ASF to [email protected] with “New Publication” on subject line.

Format Example
Dataset: AIRSAR, NASA [year of data acquisition]. Retrieved from ASF DAAC [day month year of data access]. Dataset: AIRSAR, NASA 2003. Retrieved from ASF DAAC 7 June 2015.

How to Cite Imagery

Include credit with each image shown in publications such as journal papers, articles, presentations, posters, and websites. (NASA does not copyright imagery.)

Format Example
NASA [year of data acquisition] NASA 2003

AIRSAR Datasets and DOIs

Dataset DOI
AirSAR_TOPSAR 10.5067/F1SC87EFGT9U