Recent Airborne Sar Demonstrations for Monitoring and Assessment of Volcanic Lava Flow and Severe Flooding

The unique capabilities of imaging radar to penetrate cloud cover and collect data in darkness over large areas at high resolution makes it a key information provider for the management and mitigation of natural and human-induced disasters such as earthquakes, volcanoes, landslides, floods, sinkholes, and wildfires. In 2018 we demonstrated the utility of NASA/JPL’s airborne Ka-band single-pass interferometric radar (GLISTIN-A) to monitor the growth of lava flow thickness during the surprisingly extensive Kilauea volcano eruption that lasted 3 months. We also deployed UAVSAR’s L-band polarimetric repeat-pass interferometric radar at the request of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to monitor flood extent in heavily vegetated areas of North and South Carolina in the aftermath of Hurricane Florence.