NASA Cryospheric Sciences Program
NASA funding for research using RADARSAT data is coming to the end of its sixth year. Waleed is trying to ensure that the funding continues. The way to think about future research is not so much what we can do with SAR data, but how the results fit into the objectives of the Cryospheric Sciences Program. We need stronger links to the program objectives; we need to capitalize on what has been learned. We need to make the transition from the detailed processes to a predictive capability. Think about the next level, a broader scale, process prediction and climate prediction.The Cryospheric Sciences Program is healthy. A growth area is global modeling - bringing in more robust representations of polar processes. Also, contrary to years past, NSF is more receptive to remote sensing. As long as the main thrust is the science, it's OK to bring satellite data into NSF proposals.
RADARSAT-1 is 2.5 years beyond its designed 5-year lifetime. RADARSAT-2 is scheduled for launch in the summer or fall of 2004, but NASA has not made arrangements with CSA for access to data because RADARSAT-2 is being run by a commercial entity. However, there is a recognition at HQ that something needs to be done. High-level NASA and Canadian officials are talking.
Meeting Objectives and RGPS Status
This was the 4th RGPS Science Working Group meeting. The purpose was to hear new scientific results based on RGPS products, recommend improvements to the products, suggest new products, and make the program more visible to a larger community (e.g. modelers).Two RGPS systems are in operation (JPL and ASF), and processing continues at both sites. All the data products are available from either the JPL or the ASF web sites.
JPL web site ASF web site ASF download siteRon reviewed the history of RADARSAT and RGPS, and showed coverage maps and a chart of available data.
Ron - It would be useful to post the chart of available data products.
Review of recommendations from the last meeting (which are POSTED HERE)
- High frequency coverage was acquired - see below.
- Gridded products have been produced on a 12.5 km grid in order to mesh with SSMI data. See the JPL web site.
- Mosaics of the Arctic Snapshots - not done yet.
- Melt onset product - done.
Ron - I cannot find it on your web site.- Eulerian ice motion products from previously acquired data of the Ross Sea and Weddell Sea, 2000.
Ron - We did not talk about this. Status?High frequency coverage was acquired at about 84N 135W for a 40-day period around May 2002 and a 20-day period around February 2003. There are approximately 6 images per day of the area, not evenly spaced in time throughout the day. Ron has run the ice-tracking on the images.
Ron - I don't see the data on the web site - are they available?Rudi Gens is the RGPS scientist at ASF. He is trying to make RGPS products available through the EOS Data Gateway (EDG), and is working on putting the products into a more accessible format ("shape" files) that could be used in GIS packages.
For a list of the scientific talks, see the AGENDA (240k pdf file).
Recommendations
Not necessarily in order of importance...
- Try a near-real-time demo of RGPS. This would be of interest to NIC and possibly to field programs. Presumably the initial demo would only consist of an ice motion product, computed over one or more time intervals, using quicklook imagery, without time-consuming operator input or intervention.
Action? Mike VanWoert to identify a location/time of interest? Rudi Gens to figure out how to route QL images into the RGPS, and the output product into the T1 line to NIC?
- Try spatially dense ice tracking, such as 0.5 km spacing of points.
Action: Harry will send Ron some image pairs (50m pixel size) from the SHEBA series.
- Acquire more high frequency coverage.
Action? Did we agree that this is desirable?
- Send publications that use RGPS products to Ron, who will post the list of references on the web site. What about pubs that refer to RGPS but do not use the RGPS products?
- Arrange a special RGPS session at the fall AGU meeting.
Action: Ron?
- Arrange a special RGPS session at the IGARSS '04 meeting in Anchorage.
Action: Lyn?
- Arrange a special RGPS section in JGR-Oceans. A collected set of papers makes a good impression at HQ.
Action: Ron?
- RGPS products in support of CASES?
We never really talked about whether any special action on the part of RGPS would be necessary or desirable to support the CASES field program in some way. I don't recall that John made any specific requests. Action?The RGPS consumes a huge quantity of SAR data, and access to future SAR data is uncertain for various reasons. Harry talked about this problem, and the creation of an International SAR Information Service (ISIS) as a way to organize the U.S. SAR community in order to have more leverage with foreign suppliers of SAR data. Each of half a dozen disciplines is to write a 2-page note describing the data needs of the discipline and how ISIS could help. Harry is writing the 2-pager for sea ice. He will send it around for comments shortly.
Attendance
Waleed Abdalati NASA HQ wabdalat@hq.nasa.gov Todd Arbetter U Colorado todd.arbetter@colorado.edu Tom Bicknell JPL thomas.bicknell@jpl.nasa.gov Cecie Bitz PSC/UW bitz@apl.washington.edu Max Coon NWRA max@nwra.com Rudi Gens ASF rgens@asf.alaska.edu Bill Hibler IARC billh@gi.alaska.edu David Holland Courant holland@cims.nyu.edu Mark Hopkins CRREL Mark.A.Hopkins@erdc.usace.army.mil Ron Kwok JPL ron.kwok@jpl.nasa.gov Ron Lindsay PSC/UW lindsay@apl.washington.edu Seelye Martin UW seelye@ocean.washington.edu Lyn McNutt U Alaska lyn@gi.alaska.edu Dick Moritz PSC/UW dickm@apl.washington.edu Son Nghiem JPL Son.V.Nghiem@jpl.nasa.gov Erland Schulson Dartmouth erland.m.schulson@dartmouth.edu Harry Stern PSC/UW harry@apl.washington.edu Petteri Uotila Courant jpu1@nyu.edu Mike VanWoert NIC mvanwoert@natice.noaa.gov John Yackel U Calgary yackel@ucalgary.ca Yanling Yu PSC/UW yanling@apl.washington.edu Jinlun Zhang PSC/UW zhang@apl.washington.edu