Today’s purpose

•WInSAR as an example of how a natural lab data facility can/should function

•Update of present state of WInSAR

Western North American InSAR (WInSAR) data consortium

Mirrored WWW sites:

Currently:winsar.caltech.eduwinsar.stanford.edu

Soon:winsar.ucsd.eduxxxx.yyy.eduxxxx.yyy.govxxxx.yyy.org

Arizona State Caltech Central Washington Cornell HarvardJPL LLNL MIT SDSUU. Ohio

Stanford U. Memphis U. Miami UC San Diego UC Santa CruzUC Los Angeles UC Davis UC BerkeleyUSC

28 Member Institutions

USGS U. Utah U. TexasU. Hawaii U. Alaska Western Washington U. NevadaU. MissouriPurdue U.

Executive Committee

Chair Mark SimonsVice-Chair Howard ZebkerSecretary Evelyn Price At-large Wayne ThatcherAt-large Roland Burgmann

Freq. Part. David Sandwell

Basis for existence

•Raw ERS 1 and 2 data was only available on an individual PI basis

•U.S. agencies required to fund multiple copies of raw data

•No ability to guarantee data acquisitions of W.U.S.

•Desire to increase use of InSAR observations___________

•WInSAR forms under the auspices of SCEC, but with a much larger geographical coverage…

•NASA/NSF/USGS contribute funds to buy data

•# of institutions grows from ~10 to ~30

•Effectively the longest running portion of Earthscope

Mission We aim to provide access to as much raw InSAR data to as many US geophysicists as possible (within constraints imposed by international space agencies and their commercial vendors).

PhilosophyKeep it cheap and simple:•Minimal points of contact for funding/data agencies•Low cost operation•Data must be free to PI’s•Modern distribution system (minimize human component)•Speak and act with one voice (don’t be mercenary)

Holdings•2500 ERS 1 and 2 frames (1992 – present) + a bit of Envisat•Western U.S. and Baja.•0.5 Tb mirrored at Caltech & Stanford (+ UCSD)•Many scenes have 10’s of users

•Over 50 publications using WInSAR data

Order Data I

Ordering Data II

Searching for data

Basis for future data discussions

•Envisat (ESA), ALOS (Japan), Radarsat I, Radarsat II (Canada), U.S. (???)

•We need access to large quantities of raw data (and metadata)

•Curiosity-driven mode (don’t make it painful to get to archives)

•CD timescale is long, science requires access to all of Earth’s entire subareal surface

•We must uniformly lobby for a free access to archive (current and future acquired data - not the same as acquisition issues)

•Acquisition issues: “Natural Labs” + PI-driven (multi-LOS & dense time series)

•Currently we do not mix research needs and commercial needs

Future

•Agency-level negotiation to gain access to ENVISAT, ERS, Radarsat archives for “Natural L abs” (NASA-ESA). What is time scale for agreements (Maui Workshop, 2004)

•Recently bought 1000 archive ERS scenes from Eurimage, but we have a large apetite.

•Use new 900 scene allocation for ENVISAT & ERS W.N.A. data (Parkfield, Hawaii, …)

•Attempt for international data access with ESA (no $$$ yet, if needed…).

•ALOS (Japan) data for W.U.S. arranged by proposal to JAXA, nothing in place for international data. (Dealing with NASA HQ/ASF…)

•Apply pressure for new data policy for research use among the space agencies (Maui Workshop, 2004).

Future of WInSAR

•The need to go global (WInSAR -> GInSAR?) or form new group?

•Future Home?

•SCEC3 (WInSAR enthusiastically invited)•If it isn’t broke…•Very close to the community•Leverage future IT activities

•UNAVCO (WInSAR enthusiastically invited)•Leverage existing data center support (I/O)•Precedence for global activities•Geodetic (PBO) voice

•Election imminent

•Role of WInSAR in Earthscope•Within EarthScope or outside committee?•Data access•Dedicated U.S. InSAR satellite

•Community input -> Final plan by fall AGU, 2004