Instrument concept for the proposed DESDynI SAR instrument

The dynamic nature of solid Earth processes over a range of timescales, and the high value of Radar data for understanding climate change led to the prioritization of the Deformation, Ecosystem Structure and Dynamics of Ice (DESDynI) mission as Tier One in the 2007 National Research Council of the National Academies report: Earth Science and Applications from Space—National Imperatives for the Next Decade and Beyond. A mission concept that matched the published objectives underwent pre-Project development and passed several layers of review in late 2010 and early 2011 with the target of a 2017 launch. However, cuts in the proposed FY2012 budget forced a reset of the Radar instrument and complete elimination of a planned Lidar instrument. The proposed DESDynI SAR Instrument (DSI) may now fulfil a more limited set of objectives with a more modest budget on a longer development timescale. A multitude of options have been studied with varying levels of cost, risk and science value. To maximize science per dollar, the DSI measurements would be collected over large spatial scales with frequent revisit at fine resolution. This would be accomplished by a new radar technique called SweepSAR. Efforts to develop and test the SweepSAR technique and its technologies will be discussed.