Abstract :
Summary form only given. The scientific knowledge gained from four decades of radar remote sensing of the Earth across the spectrum will guide exploration initiatives of the future. Future missions put forward to the NASA Earth Science Decadal Survey include repeat pass polarimetric interferometry radar missions at low frequency for surface deformation and biome mapping, wide swath altimeters for dense mapping of the ocean topography, global ocean wind mapping, as well as missions addressing the water cycle that use high frequency two-aperture interferometer techniques to measure the height of rivers and other inland water bodies. Long wavelength radars (L-band and longer) are being considered for mapping the sub-surfaces of the moon, Mars, Titan, and smaller bodies, penetrating the regolith and revealing the ice sequestered below if it exists, and on Europa, revealing the water below the icy shell. The key to the future of radar remote sensing will be the development of low-mass, low-volume, power-efficient systems that make the scientific need for ubiquitous radar sensing affordable, and continued research in the exploitation of archived and continuing data series by high performance data reduction, modeling, and simulation methods.
