Geo-spatial Information Science

Advancing Earth Observation with NISAR: Early Results in Data Processing, Geophysical Interpretation, and Multi-Source Synthesis

The NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR) mission has recently initiated public data distribution. With its wide swath, high spatial resolution, left-looking, and dual-frequency observing capability, NISAR is poised to significantly advance Earth observation across the solid Earth, cryosphere, hydrosphere, and ecosystems. Its free and open SAR/InSAR processing tools and products are expected to substantially lower technical barriers to data access, processing, and analysis.

This Special Issue aims to bring together the early results in NISAR data processing, physics-based modeling, and application studies. We particularly welcome contributions that highlight methodological innovation and scientific discoveries enabled by NISAR, along with other remote sensing observations in solid Earth geophysics, cryosphere dynamics, hydrological processes, and environmental studies.

Submissions may focus on studies based on NISAR data, as well as studies integrating NISAR with other SAR, optical, and in situ observations. Comparative assessment studies of Earth observation capabilities of NISAR relative to other SAR missions are especially encouraged.

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

1. NISAR data processing and error modeling
Time-series InSAR, phase optimization, phase unwrapping, atmospheric correction, fading signal modeling/correction, error propagation, and uncertainty quantification.

2. NISAR applications in solid Earth and cryosphere studies
Volcanic activity, tectonic deformation, earthquakes, landslides, mining-induced deformation, land subsidence, glaciers, and permafrost.

3. NISAR applications in hydrology
Dynamic monitoring of surface water bodies, soil moisture retrieval, under-canopy water mapping, flood detection, and wetland monitoring.

4. NISAR applications in geophysical inversion
Coseismic slip modeling, magma reservoirs and migration pathways, groundwater storage change, aquifer parameter estimation, permafrost active-layer thickness retrieval, and landslide slip-surface geometry and geomechanical parameters.

5. Synergistic applications of NISAR with multi-source observations
Integration of NISAR with other SAR data, optical imagery, GNSS, seismic networks, meteorological and hydrological data, and in situ measurements for 3D surface deformation reconstruction, multi-process coupling, and hazard evolution modeling and prediction.

6. AI-driven intelligent interpretation of NISAR data
Target recognition in representative scenarios, semantic segmentation, change detection, and spatiotemporal prediction.

7. Comparative assessment of NISAR and other SAR Earth observation systems
Coherence performance, error sources, deformation sensitivity, and 3D deformation retrieval capability.