Surface changes

NASA is evaluating a compact L-Band synthetic aperture radar that can detect and measure small changes in the Earth's surface.

The radar will allow scientists to examine areas of scientific interest, such as volcanoes, earthquake faults, landslides and glaciers.

NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) joined forces to develop the so-called Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Synthetic Aperture Radar (UAVSAR).

During validation flights, a modified NASA Gulfstream III aircraft will carry the radar in a custom-built pod about 10ft (3.048m) in length under the aircraft's fuselage. The pod also contains a two-terabyte recorder to store the large amounts of data generated by the radar.

The Gulfstream III will make two passes across sections of the Earth's surface. Data captured by the the synthetic aperture radar will then be used to highlight surface displacement with a sensitivity equal to a fractional part of the radar wavelength.

The radar's electronically steered antenna compensates for aircraft attitude changes as the radar makes repeated passes over areas of interest.