Technology > Calibration > NISAR Calibration
NISAR Mission
The NISAR mission is a satellite SAR jointly developed by NASA and ISRO, India's space agency. The NASA-ISRO SAR (NISAR) mission will measure our planet's changing ecosystems, dynamic surfaces, and ice masses. This will provide scientists with valuable information about biomass, natural hazards, soil moisture, and sea-level rise. See here for additional information.
NISAR Calibration
Post-launch cal/val activities may involve imaging well established ground targets. NISAR cal/val will partially use a Corner Reflector (CR) array as these targets are commonly used for SAR systems. As many as 20 corner reflectors located in NISAR's swath over the Oklahoma and Texas areas will be deployed for NISAR calibration.
Oklahoma and Texas NISAR Calibration Array
Construction
Each NISAR CR measures 2.8 meters (9.2 ft) and is a triangular-trihedral reflector constructed with 0.125" Aluminum Alloy 5052 H32 perforated sheets with staggered round holes of size 0.188". They are retained to the ground with 1/16" guy-wires pulled down to the ground with turnbuckles attached to duckbill anchors buried 18" into the ground. The front and rear wooden platforms rest on 2" high cinder blocks attached with wedge anchors and held down by 14" metal stakes.
Deployment
Trial deployment of two NISAR CRs occurred in June, 2021 near Clinton, Oklahoma. The images below are from left to right, N01K and N03K.
East facing CR N01K in the morning
West facing CR N03K in the evening
Coordinates
The coordinates listed here are in IGS14 Reference Frame. See a chronology of reference frames for additional information. The coordinates are expressed as WGS-84 geodetic latitude and height above the reference ellipsoid such that:
- a = 6,378,137 meters
- f = 1/298.257222
The coordinates are referenced to epoch 4-June-2021 and modeled with 1.5364 cms/year of plate motion with an azimuth direction of 254°. Specifically the changes in East, North, and Vertical are modeled as:
- delta_east_in_meters = -0.01486 * ( gps_time_past_4-June-2011_in_secs) / 365.25 / 86400
- delta_north_in_meters = -0.00428 * ( gps_time_past_4-June-2021_in_secs) / 365.25 / 86400
- delta_vertical_in_meters = 0.0 * ( gps_time_past_4-June-2021_in_secs) / 365.25 / 86400
These rates are the average of a multi-year time series analysis of the permanent CORS sites OKSY and OKCL. The PBO site WMOK for example here also shows simliar horizontal plate motion.
Nearby velocity vectors from GPS multi-year GPS analysis
Accuracy & Maintenance History
June 2021
Initial deployment of N01K and N03K occurred June 2nd and June 3rd, 2021. Sites locations were computed with PPP for absolute positioning. Nearly 16 hours GNSS data was collected for N01K and over 14 hours of GNSS data was collected for N03K. It is believed that the accuracy of the NISAR corner vertices is better than 3 CMs 1-sigma.
Deployment of CR N01K, June 3, 2021
Deployment of CR N03K, June 2, 2021
July 28, 2021
N01K
The turnbuckles were tightened to re-tension the guy-wires. Removed tall grasses and reinforced fence.
N03K
Fence down, and metal posts bent. Stakes were partially out of the groud, and two guy-wires were not attached to CR. All remaining guy-wires were loose. Removed tall grasses, restaked, tightened turnbuckles after removing some S-hooks and reinforced the fence.
Maintenance of CR N01K, July 28, 2021
Maintenance of CR N03K, July 28, 2021
December 14 & 15, 2021
N01K and N03K
Removed all prior fencing and tall grasses. Reconstructed N01K and N03K with cap blocks as bases which elevated the CRs 1 5/8" in height. Erected 8.6 kV electric fences with two lines of polywire each and energized with solar chargers. Restaked aft guy-wires and replaced all side stakes with duck-bill anchors. Did not redo metrology but rather adjusted prior coordinates in vertical due to the offsets introduced by the cap blocks. There is non-trivial sagging of both bottom panels as this was necessary at this time to reduce oscillations in strong wind conditions. Future maintenance will reinforce the bottom panel and move the forward platform stands out toward the edges. This should reduce the sagging of the bottom panel. When this maintenance is performed, we will redo the full metrology of these CRs.
Reconstructed East Facing CR N01K, December 15, 2021
Reconstructed West Facing CR N03K, December 14, 2021
December 16, 2021
N02K and N04K
Installed new NISAR corners N02K and N04K. Both these corners have a reinforced bottom panel and due to placement of the front stands, sagging of the bottom panels is greatly reduced. Erected 8.6 kV electric fences with two lines of polywire each and energized with solar chargers. Completed full metrology on these reflectors. Used SWOT Eastern Reference site (SEOT) to perform RTK to N04K with 4 hours of GPS data, and RTK to N02K with 1.5 hours of GPS data.
Newly Constructed West Facing CR N02K, December 16, 2021
Newly Constructed East Facing CR N04K, December 16, 2021
September, 19 to September 27, 2022
N03K, N01K, N02K, N04K
Re-monumented N03K and re-secured N01K. N03K was overturned and placed near its original location. N01K was mounted on 20x20x2" capstones for better retention in the wind. Both CRs were cinced down and remeasured. Nearly 17 hours of GNSS data was acquired for both of these CRs. N02K was also overturned and was relocated 8 meters East and 1.4 meters South of it's original location. Over 19 hours of GNSS data was aquired for N02K. Complete metrology on these 3 reflectors was obtained. N04K was not relocated or re-monumented and has survived well for over 1 year. For N04K the azimuth was measured as 0.5 degrees (was 359.0) and the tilt angle was measured as 17.9 degrees (was 16.6).
Re-Constructed West Facing 2.8 m CR N03K, September 20, 2022
Re-Monumented East Facing 2.8 m CR N01K, September 21, 2022
Re-Constructed West Facing 2.8 m CR N02K, September 26, 2022
East Facing 2.8 m CR N04K, September 26, 2022
May 16 to May 21, 2023
N02K - Foss Lake
East Facing 2.8 m CR N02K, May 16, 2023 Lat:35.53689o Lon:-99.21026o
Re-Constructed East Facing 2.8 m CR N02K, May 16, 2023
Re-Monumented East Facing 2.8 m CR N02K, May 16, 2023
Re-Constructed East Facing 2.8 m CR N02K, May 16, 2023
Deployment of CR N02K, May 16, 2023
N04K - Foss Lake
N05K - Carla
N06K - Putnam
N07K - Lahoma
N08K - Blackwell
N10K - Guthrie
August 25, 2023
N03K - Putnam
West Facing 2.8 m CR N03K, August 25, 2023
N05K - Putnam
West Facing 2.8 m CR N05K, August 25, 2023
N06K - Putnam
West Facing 2.8 m CR N06K, August 25, 2023
Corner Reflector (CR) Data
KMZ file of all deployed NISAR CRs in Oklahoma. Orange triangles represent deployed CRs while Green triangles represent CRs to be deployed Oct 19-Oct 31, 2023
Use the 'Get Corner Reflector Data' button to retrieve the vertices of the the SWOT corner reflectors (latitude, longitude, orientation, etc) for a particular date. Data goes back to June 4, 2021. Output is a comma-separated value (CSV) file.
Select type tide-free for conventional tide-free crust (ITRF), select type instantaneous-crust for instantanous observed crust, and select type mean-crust for permanent tide. See for example, terrestial reference systems, particulary Figure 1.1 for additional information. The entered date applies the average plate motion of nearby GNSS sites OKSY and OKCL. The date also applies the solid tide, pole tide, and ocean tide with the FES2014b Ocean Tide Model and center of mass due to both solid Earth and ocean. The reference system instantaneous-crust is a function of latitude, longitude, and the entered time. The reference system mean-crust is a function of latitude only. See for example, permanent tide deformation.
Coordinate Type:
Get Corner Reflector Data
Get Tide Data
Contact:
Ronald Muellerschoen
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Mail Stop 300-238
4800 Oak Grove Drive
Pasadena, California, 91109-8099
Tel: (818) 354-0717
Email: rjm@jpl.nasa.gov