This presentation will explore the use of active airborne radio (radar) interferometry to measure surface features of the Earth at a very fine scale. Sandia Laboratories designs and fields radars that map out earth features as small as a few feet with absolute (three-dimensional) positional accuracy on the order of a few meters. We will discuss some of the techniques used in these radars. (There are tremendous parallels with the principles of radio astronomy.)

Then, the best part (at least in my opinion): real data! We have operational experience using these radars to measure a variety of types of terrain. The features of the Earth are pretty interesting at a 3-m scale!