AIRCRAFT DEPLOYMENT

AIRSAR
The NASA/JPL Airborne Synthetic Aperture Radar (AIRSAR) system is a three-frequency airborne SAR system that was developed as a general test-bed for various advanced SAR techniques. The AIRSAR was designed, built and is managed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), California Institute of Technology, for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). The AIRSAR is flown on a NASA DC-8 passenger jet, modified for research applications, operated by NASA’s Dryden Flight Research Center in Edwards Air Force Base, California.

As part of NASA’s Earth Science enterprise, the AIRSAR data are currently collected for NASA-funded investigators in the United States as well as sponsors from international organizations. Calls for flight request are made on a yearly basis from NASA Headquarters, where the flight requests are also approved. Once the flight season is scheduled, JPL works with the selected investigators to optimize data collection. Following data collection, data are processed at JPL and then delivered to the customers. All processed data are archived and catalogued at JPL.