| The Mission and Objectives of
the WInSAR Consortium |
Purpose:
The western part of North America is the focus of intensive
scientific research into a variety of plate boundary processes
including earthquakes, volcanism, mountain building, and
micro-plate tectonics. For example, the characterization
and more complete understanding of the plate boundary
deformation system, and its relationship to the occurrence
of earthquakes, is a rich scientific problem that may
ultimately lead to a reduction in seismic risk. Other
natural processes that induce surface deformation such
as land subsidence induced by water or oil extraction
are also at work in western North America. The technique
of spaceborne Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar
(InSAR) provides an excellent means of observing deformation
over broad areas. It is capable of 10's of meters spatial
resolution at monthly or greater intervals. InSAR has
proven to be a powerful tool to characterize large-scale
deformation associated with active faults. It also can
resolve small-scale deformation features such as shallow
creep, postseismic and interseismic deformation. And it
is an ideal tool for measuring land subsidence and improving
digital terrain models.
Objectives:
The Western North America InSAR (WInSAR) Consortium is
a collection of universities and public agencies created
to manage the acquisition and archiving of spaceborne
InSAR data over western North America for their mutual
benefit. The major objectives of WInSAR are to:
- Promote the use and development of InSAR technology
for scientific investigations, in particular but not
limited to, seismic and magmatic processes, plate boundary
deformation, land subsidence, and topographic mapping.
- Acquire SAR imagery in western North America, archive
and catalog the data, and disseminate it for use by
member organizations.
- Provide value-added InSAR products and software for
use by the scientific community.
- Advocate the open exchange of SAR data by seeking
to enlarge the number of member organizations.
- Solicit funds and promote programs and space missions
to meet these objectives.
| Funding for WInSAR operations and data acqusitions provided by NASA, USGS, and NSF. A portion of our archived data was provided at low cost by ESA. |
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WInSAR is hosted by UNAVCO. UNAVCO, a non-profit, membership-governed consortium,
supports and promotes Earth science by advancing high-precision techniques for the measurement and
understanding of deformation. UNAVCO also supports education to meet the needs of the community and
the public. |
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