SWESARR
Snow Water Equivalent Synthetic Aperture Radar and Radiometer

The Snow Water Equivalent Synthetic Aperture Radar and Radiometer (SWESARR) is an airborne remote sensor developed at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC). It consists of a synthetic aperture radar (SAR) and a microwave radiometer for retrievals of snow water equivalent (SWE). The SAR instrument measures radar backscatter across three frequency bands: 9.65, 13.6, and 17.25 GHz. It has a nominal range resolution of 1.1 m and a swath width of about 250 to 450 m, depending on the operating frequency. The radiometer measures brightness temperature across three frequency bands: 10.65, 18.7, and 36.5 GHz. At a nominal altitude of 1500 m, it has a spatial resolution of 496 x 353 m, 282 x 200 m, and 144 x 102 m for the X-band, K-band, and Ka-band frequencies, respectively.