[unav_all] Community InSAR Workshop and Working Group

[William Prescott]

From: Andrea Donnellan <Andrea.Donnellan at jpl.nasa.gov>
Subject: Community InSAR Working Group

Dear Colleague,

We invite you to participate in a community-led InSAR Working Group 
dedicated to the advancement of radar remote sensing research.  The 
potential of a robust InSAR observational capability has generated 
strong interest amongst the research and applications communities. 
The role of InSAR spans a broad spectrum of end uses including 
crustal deformation science related to earthquakes, volcanoes, 
hydrologic processes, ice sheet and glacier variability,  vegetation 
structure, and  disaster management.  Long-term access to InSAR data 
will greatly advance our understanding of how these basic processes 
affect life on Earth.  Consequently, the US scientific community 
should devise a long-term strategy for US InSAR activities, including 
the funding of dedicated US InSAR satellites, access to foreign SAR 
data, and continued education and advocacy for InSAR science.

Creation of an InSAR Working Group is timely and important for a 
number of reasons.  1) In the next year there are likely to be 
opportunities to develop proposals for an InSAR mission.  A 
well-organized community will improve the response to any 
announcements of opportunity.  2) Several large scientific endeavors 
including geohazards natural laboratories such as EarthScope and the 
upcoming International Polar Year can greatly benefit from InSAR 
science, data, and missions. 3) Several countries have expressed 
interest in contributing to an InSAR mission either through funding 
support or sharing of data from existing satellites.  Nurturing these 
opportunities with our international colleagues will help assure both 
short-term and long-term access to InSAR data. We must continue to 
develop interagency and international support for a robust InSAR 
observational program.

A three-day community workshop is planned to provide an assessment of 
current InSAR science research and mission technology and further 
define science objectives that can be addressed through the use of 
InSAR.  The workshop will also include discussions of mission 
architecture scenarios, ideas for community education and advocacy, 
and the objectives and structure of an InSAR Working Group.  The 
Workshop will be held October 20-22, 2004 at the Embassy Suites 
Mandalay Beach in Oxnard, California. Travel funds for US 
participants have been secured from NASA.  Foreign participants are 
invited, but are expected to fund their own travel.

The InSAR Working Group will coordinate with and report to NASA, the 
National Science Foundation, USGS, NOAA, the EarthScope Education and 
Science Advisory Committee, and other appropriate organizations such 
as the IPY planning group.  The group will produce documents 
outlining the science drivers, targets, and requirements for an InSAR 
mission, and will participate in community advocacy for radar 
science.  These efforts will help seed the development of 
opportunities and proposals to the appropriate government agencies.

Please indicate your interest in participating on the web page 
<http://solidearth.jpl.nasa.gov/insar/>http://solidearth.jpl.nasa.gov/insar/ 
. You must register on the page to be considered for full or partial 
support.  Please forward this message as appropriate.

Workshop Organizing Committee:

Sean Buckley, University of Texas, Austin
Andrea Donnellan, Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Ken Jezek, Ohio State University
Nettie La Belle-Hamer, University of Alaska
Bernard Minster, Scripps Institution of Oceanography
Will Prescott, UNAVCO
Paul Rosen, Jet Propulsion Laboratory
John Rundle, University of California, Davis
Jeanne Sauber, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
Mark Simons, California Institute of Technology
Wayne Thatcher, US Geological Survey, Menlo Park
Howard Zebker, Stanford University