In the recent era, earth observation data and digital application development is the most promising field of innovation. The FabSpace Darmstadt team is also working hard to make things happen in a digital form by incorporation satellite imagery and geo-information. In this regard FabSpace 2.0 Darmstadt organized the second Open Day at Darmstadt University of Technology from 10^th to 13^th July. The whole session was four day long theoretical and practical learnings on Radar Remote Sensing. There were more than 20 participants attended the program and most of them studying at TU Darmstadt.

In the first day, participants were gathered knowledge on the basics of Radar Remote Sensing with special focus on bands, frequency and wavelengths of different radar satellite imagery. It was also discussed in brief about different space born SAR (Synthetic Aperture Radar) satellite since 1978 and their data properties. At the end of the day participants got an overview on SAR system and their application in the field of classification and monitoring Earth deformation caused by earthquakes, volcanic activities, and subsidence etc. The FabSpace laboratory also offers easy access to SAR datasets and ready to use software and tools to do such complex operations. The laboratory is well equipped with physical server and geo-server including all necessary software installed which can give remote access to the users for high speed computation.           

In the next day, the technical discussion was little deeper in the field of radar polarimetry at the laboratory. It is introduced to the participants the principles of different radar systems of transmit/receive (i.e. single, dual, alternating and polarimetric) of polarization combinations. In general, the session summarized how radar imagery collects different and complementary information using different wavelength and polarization combination. In the third day the main topic was SAR interferometry and practical exercise on interferogram generation. The technical session introduced how theoretically and practically InSAR observations measure Earth’s surface in a dynamic way. In principle SAR techniques observe a same point on the ground more than two times in a slightly different angle and then it is possible to calculate difference between these radar images to detect horizontal and vertical surface movement in millimeter scale. A powerful remote sensing technique Persistent Scatterer Interferometry (PSI) is more precise measurement of Earth’s surface displacement over time. Therefore, the last topic of the Open Day was the review of such PSI techniques and practical exercise on PS point generation. It was also demonstrated if the PS density is low then how artificial corner reflectors can be used to generate a good interferometric phase.

In the conclusion, participants were examined by oral presentation and their performance in the exercises. The conceptual understandings and the opportunities of using radar remote sensing has been debated in the whole session. Moreover, the business potentials of innovating solutions out of this complex science has been generalized.      

Nevertheless, FabSpace Darmstadt with all other FabSpaces in Europe continuously energizing young enthusiast for geo-data driven innovation and the Open Day was a part of it. To join any event and to follow FabSpace activity, please look at the following websites.

www.fabspace.eu

www.fabspace-germany.de

https://fab-server.ipg.verm.tu-darmstadt.de