AIRSAR_POL_3FP·v1·dataset
Multi-frequency radar from aircraft surveys (AIRSAR)
AIRSAR_POLSAR_3_FREQ_POLARIMETRY
land NASA ASF Level 1
In plain English
What it measures. This is radar imagery collected at three different radar frequencies at once, capturing how the surface scatters radar energy in detail (its polarimetry). The supplied description is very brief.
How it's made. Collected by the airborne AIRSAR radar system flown on a DC-8 aircraft, rather than from a satellite, and packaged as individual image frames.
How & where you'd use it. Suited to detailed surface and terrain studies that benefit from multiple radar frequencies; it is a specialist research dataset. Beyond that, the provided description gives little detail.
What's measured
LAND SURFACE › LAND USE/LAND COVER › LAND RESOURCES
Coverage & cadence
- Time span1990-03-02 → 2004-03-21
- Measured byDC-8 (AIRSAR)
- Processing levelLevel 1
- StatusACTIVE
What you can do with it
- Track deforestation, fire scars and land-cover change
- Monitor crop and vegetation health (NDVI/EVI)
- Map how built-up vs. green an area is over time
Official description
AIRSAR three-frequency polarimetric frame product
Get the data
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc") # free Earthdata Login
results = earthaccess.search_data(
short_name="AIRSAR_POL_3FP",
version="1",
bounding_box=(-122.5, 37.2, -121.8, 37.9), # your area (W,S,E,N)
temporal=("2024-01-01", "2024-12-31"), # your dates
)
files = earthaccess.open(results) # stream straight from ASFBrowsing CMR needs no login. Downloading or streaming bytes needs a free Earthdata Login + the earthaccess package.