Future opportunities and issues in radar remote sensing of Earth´s high latitudes

The Alaska SAR Facility (ASF) is now downlinking data for science and operational users from 4 satellites, ERS-1 and -2, JERS-1, and RADARSAT; ASF thus processes data generated by three non-US space agencies, ESA, NASDA, and CSA. All of these satellites may well be still functioning at the turn of the millennium. Scientific plans are now in place for these data sets, and more opportunities for their use are planned. The future is also promising: In 1998 ESA plans an exciting new radar, the ASAR, as part of the ENVISAT payload; in 2000 CSA plans to launch and operate RADARSAT 2; and in 2001 or 2002 NASDA plans to launch ALOS. These future satellite programs promise increased observational capability. ASF, plans to provide users with steadily increasing quantity and quality of data as well as increased access to higher-level data products and specialized data sets such as interferometric SAR. Among the higher-level products envisioned are weekly, Arctic-wide ice motion, age, and thickness, a complete RADARSAT SAR map of Antarctica, JERS-1 mosaics of the Amazon and African rain forests, ERS Tandem Mission fringe maps of Antarctica and parts of Alaska, and other user-generated products. With the increased coverage and frequency selection, the value of fused data sets consisting of SAR and other data sets will be far greater. The authors feel that the next 5-10 years will see the maturation of routine SAR observations in a number of exciting scientific and operational applications. Thus, over the next decade the satellite radar data sets available to researchers in the high latitudes will evolve significantly, especially if the user community can exert some influence over flight agencies in the area of data availability