MEO SAR System Concepts and Technologies for Earth Remote Sensing

Next-generation interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) systems may provide the basis for establishing an earthquake-forecasting capability within a twenty-year time frame. Such systems would need to provide data with fine temporal resolution, so the system architecture would need to allow for wide-area coverage in order to minimize the effective interferometric repeat time. This paper discusses the coverage advantages associated with medium-Earth orbit (MEO) InSAR systems for observing geophysical phenomena. As MEO architectures dictate the need for large radar antennas, this paper also presents a discussion of advanced antenna technologies—and associated challenges—that might provide revolutionary decreases in the mass densities of large radar aperture antennas.