[unav_all] GeoEarthScope InSAR announcement: ESA Cat-1 proposal for Basin & Range

[David Phillips]

GeoEarthScope, a component of the EarthScope Facility project,  
includes the acquisition of aerial and satellite imagery and  
geochronology to examine the strain field beyond the decade time  
scales available from the PBO geodetic instrumentation and to assist  
with station siting. In order to meet the goals of EarthScope, UNAVCO  
intends to acquire InSAR imagery for selected targets from  
appropriate providers. As part of this effort UNAVCO is preparing to  
submit a Category-1 data request proposal to the European Space  
Agency (ESA) to acquire InSAR imagery for the Basin and Range region  
of North America. GeoEarthScope funding for this particular  
acquisition was allocated based upon a successful proposal submitted  
to NSF by P.I. Falk Amelung (Univ. of Miami).

In general, data acquired with EarthScope Major Research Equipment  
Facility Construction (MREFC) funding become part of the freely  
accessible EarthScope data set. However, because of ESA restrictions  
on the distribution of images acquired through Cat-1 proposals, the  
same EarthScope policy cannot be applied directly to ESA products  
acquired with EarthScope funding. After discussion and negotiation  
with ESA we have worked out the following guidelines for  
GeoEarthScope InSAR acquisitions. These guidelines will allow us to  
make GeoEarthScope InSAR data available to all EarthScope  
investigators through the WInSAR archive with a minimum of  
inconvenience, while at the same time, respecting the concerns of the  
data source, ESA.

Accordingly, UNAVCO will establish a GeoEarthScope catalog of ESA  
data acquired through Cat-1 proposals for various regions within the  
PBO footprint. For each region, ESA has requested that we maintain a  
list of researchers with an immediate interest in those associated  
InSAR scenes. An “immediate interest” is interpreted to mean a clear  
intent to produce publications utilizing the data within the next  
several years. Requirements for being included in the list of  
researchers for a given region will be those applicable to joining  
WInSAR plus a GeoEarthScope Statement of Interest as described  
below.  GeoEarthScope data acquired through an ESA Cat-1 will be made  
available using the same WInSAR catalog system we use for other SAR  
data, with download privileges restricted to the subset of users  
identified by the GeoEarthScope lists of researchers. The list of  
researchers with access to a given region can be expanded (or  
contracted) at any time as investigators develop (or lose) interest  
in a region and request a change in their status.

Based on these guidelines, UNAVCO therefore seeks input from  
EarthScope community members who would like to be considered for  
inclusion as Co-Investigators in a GeoEarthScope Basin and Range  
Cat-1 proposal to ESA. Co-Investigators on the acquisition Cat-1  
proposal will be limited to those with a clear intent to publish  
results using the requested data in the near future. Additional Co- 
Investigators can be easily added to the access list in the future.  
Details regarding the scenes to be requested in the Basin and Range  
Cat-1 proposal will be made available at the UNAVCO GeoEarthScope  
website (www.unavco.org/geoearthscope).

UNAVCO plans to pursue additional ESA Cat-1 proposals for other  
regions within the PBO footprint as well. Future acquisition targets,  
however, will be identified and prioritized by the GeoEarthScope  
InSAR working group as part of the new GeoEarthScope plan (available  
online at www.unavco.org/geoearthscope). The GeoEarthScope InSAR  
working group will meet for the first time on July 11-12, 2006.  
Additional requests for Statements of Interest will be issued for  
these data sets as they are identified.

If you have interest in Basin and Range InSAR data and would like  
access to these data as soon as they are available, please email a  
Statement of Interest to David Phillips <phillips at unavco.org> by the  
15th of July 2006. A sample Statement of Interest is attached as an  
example.

Please note: We can add names to the access list at any time. There  
is no need to submit a Statement of Interest unless you have a  
current interest.

Thank you very much,

Will Prescott, President of UNAVCO
David Phillips, GeoEarthScope Project Manager


SAMPLE STATEMENT OF INTEREST

Name:				Jane Researcher

Region of Interest:	Basin and Range, Western US

Reason:				Data needed for current ongoing research in the Basin and  
Range
					or
					Data needed for new research project beginning in September 2006

Optional:			Additional information on planned research. This  
information will be accessible to others.