Enhanced Soil State Monitoring in Arctic Environments

Founded in 2020, Boston Geospatial (BG) brings near real-time natural threat intelligence to operators and decision makers using its sensor agnostic radar processing platform. BG proposes to enhance soil moisture monitoring in arctic environments by addressing critical gaps in remote sensing identified by the Joint Requirements Oversight Council (JROC). The effort aims to leverage BG's prior work with Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) to improve the accuracy and reliability of soil moisture measurements, particularly in permafrost regions, by providing an active layer thickness retrieval capability using InSAR. The specific objectives include adapting existing phase calibration methodologies for automated phase referencing, validating InSAR-based subsidence measurements against GNSS observations, and developing a model for active layer thickness retrieval using combined InSAR land surface temperature (LST) data. These enhancements will be integrated into a comprehensive software package, culminating in an end-to-end demonstration over an arctic test area.  The expected outcome is a robust means for the DoD, particularly the Space Systems Command (SSC), to improve soil moisture measurement accuracy and enhance space-based environmental monitoring and decision-making processes. This will ultimately support an improved common operating picture for arctic operations as well as improve the operational readiness of critical arctic infrastructure, such as missile detection systems and runways.