Members of the MSFC Disasters Program were invited to participate in the next NASA’s Commercial Smallsat Data Acquisition (CSDA) Program Pilot Project. This one-year venture will be evaluating X-band synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data from a new commercial vendor for various applications and research. This specific project will focus on evaluating X-band SAR data for impacts to the land surface after severe weather for future response activities and research. Project activities include using the data to identify and analyze tornado tracks, understanding the impact on agricultural areas after damaging winds and large hail move through, and assessing skill of the data for selected flooding events. The project will also include understanding how the X-band SAR data can complement the other SAR and optical remote sensing data. The project is expected to kick off in mid-August and will be led by Jordan Bell (ST11).
