Email sent by SIT Chair Team (Osamu Ochiai) on August 15:
Dear CEOS colleagues,
At SIT-39, Ake Rosenqvist of JAXA and the LSI-VC presented on the value of fully-polarimetric, quad-polarisation (QP) SAR data for polarimetric analysis (PolSAR), interferometric analysis of changes in polarimetric phase (Pol-InSAR), as well as the value of multi-frequency SAR acquisitions for more complete characterisation of Earth’s surface features.
Despite having great potential, PolSAR, Pol-InSAR and multi-frequency SAR research and applications are still underdeveloped. This is partly due to a scarcity of consistent time-series of polarimetric data for R&D and a lack of (near-)coincident, multi-sensor, multi-frequency datasets for interoperability analysis. Coupled with the relative complexity of polarimetric processing, applications development and broad uptake by the user community have been limited.
The potential role of CEOS (specifically agencies operating QP-capable SAR missions) in addressing this was recognised by the ESA PolInSAR Workshop in Toulouse, France, in June 2023, and subsequently discussions have been held in the LSI-VC. These discussions led to the identification of three recommendations that were presented to SIT-39:
More information can be found in the slides from SIT-39.
The immediate action arising from SIT-39 was for interested agencies to designate a point of contact for engagement in an LSI-VC Polarimetric Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (PolInSAR) Team, which would begin to look at the practicalities of the above and start working on implementation.
The JAXA SIT Chair Team is writing today to encourage nomination of representatives to this group, which we feel has a very clear and achievable vision, and which can be uniquely facilitated by CEOS.
JAXA will contribute to the team as we see great potential to unlock new value from SAR, and we encourage you to do the same.
Only one response has been received. Reminder email planned.