From: Kevin Dalsted [mailto:kevin_dalsted@sdstate.edu]
Sent: Thursday, January 27, 2000 2:48 PM
To: DENNIS HELDER; DAVID CLAY; DOUGLAS MALO; KURT COGSWELL; MARY O'NEILL; SHARON CLAY; STEPHEN SCHILLER; SUNG SHIN; SUZETTE BURCKHARD; Thomas V Durkin; VERNON SCHAEFER; CARTER JOHNSON; 'Michelle Kelly'
Cc: DAVID HILDERBRAND; JOHN RUFFOLO; Sherry O Farwell
Subject: NASA EPSCoR trip report

 January 27, 2000

TO: NASA EPSCoR group (please forward to anyone that I may have missed)

FROM: K. Dalsted

SUBJECT: Workshop on NASA's plan for spaceborne SAR remote sensing

I attended this workshop on 19, 20 January in Houston. While NASA organized the conference, Texaco provided significant support to the whole process.  Alfredo Prelat, Texaco, has been involved with the LightSAR project from its inception and was a co-organizer along with JPL. S. Bard, Y. Kim, J.Hilland, P. Rosen, and Merle Vereen were the JPL representatives in attendance; G. Asrar (first morning only) and Dick Monson were NASA headquarters' representatives. The workshop agenda and some of the talks are found at the JPL website (http://southport.jpl.nasa.gov/SAR_Users_Workshop/agenda.html). I believe that slides from more of the talks and the working group summary statements will soon be added to the web site.

The workshop was held in order to get some final input prior to NASA's report to Congress (1 February) concerning the LightSAR project. Only one proposal had been received for LightSAR last fall and NASA determined that it was unacceptable, primarily due to inadequate financial support. Congress then requested NASA's report on the LightSAR funding and what they suggest for the next action.

The consensus of the attendees was the SAR satellite ought to be funded and launched. The Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund should be used to support part of the cost of the system. Other funding should come from NASA. The receiving station and archiving site ought to be the EROS Data Center (EDC had two representatives in attendance). Furthermore, LightSAR ought to be replaced with a state-of-art multifrequency system and a new competition for the SAR system should be initiated, i.e., forget the sole proposal for LightSAR. More JPL-organized meetings will likely ensue to discuss finalization of systems specifications, etc.

Some of the SAR applications discussed at the workshop included petroleum spills and exploration, land subsidence in Houston and Phoenix (landslide applications ??), precision agriculture, freeze-thaw mapping for large areas, and wind mapping along the coastal regions. Probably more stakeholders will be brought into picture as the SAR system gains support.

It would seem to me that the SAR sensor would have some applications to our planned EPSCoR research. In order to write this into our proposal, we will have to solicit data collection from the JPL aircraft radar instrument (airSAR). This may not require a trip to JPL, though that might be added insurance for our chances of having the missions accepted and properly scheduled. I have previously unsuccessfully solicited SAR coverage from JPL on two occasions for NASA projects.

I also talked with a representative of TRW and he was going to talk to some of his colleagues and see if their hyperspectral instrument could be scheduled over some of the SDSU precision ag.fields. I will follow-up with him and hope for a no-cost agreement.

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