Airborne Synthetic Aperture Radar and Electromagnetic Technologies of the Italian earth observation platform ITINERIS

ITINERIS - Italian Integrated Environmental Research Infrastructures System is the Italian hub of research infrastructures in the environmental scientific domain, whose creation is financed by the national recovery and resilience plan (PNRR). Among the large number of technological solutions made available by the infrastructure, thanks to its skills in the fields of remote sensing and electromagnetic monitoring of the environment, the Institute for Electromagnetic Sensing of the Environment of the National Research Council (CNRIREA) has in charge the development and optimization of technologies for the Soil-Subsoil System (SSS) observation. Specifically, CNR – IREA is carrying out activities concerning two technological assets. The first one is made up of airborne Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) systems and computing resources suitable to manage large amounts of data and generate SAR derived products. The second one involves mobile (also by exploiting drones) and fixed in-situ sensors, consisting of magnetometers, gradiometer, multi-antenna ground penetrating radar and optical backscatter reflectometer, which are suitable for high resolution imaging and monitoring of the shallower layers of the subsoil, including the groundwater. These activities also involve the design of innovative data processing procedures, aimed at increasing the effectiveness of each one of the observation technologies, as well as the definition of measurement protocols and strategies devoted to the integration of airborne and in-situ sensors, with the final goal to perform a multi-scale and multiresolution non-invasive monitoring of the dynamic processes affecting the SSS. A detailed summary of the performed and planned activities will be presented at the conference together with the technical specifics of the purchased instrumentations.