THE GEOPHYSICAL PROCESSOR SYSTEM AT THE ALASKA-SAR-FACILITY

The Geophysical Processor System (GPS), installed at the Alaska SAR Fa cility, is utilized for the routine conversion of SAR image data to ge ophysical data products. It is currently processing data acquired by t he European ERS-1 (ERS-1) and Japanese ERS-1 (JERS-1) Synthetic Apertu re Radars (SAR). The system is capable of extracting sea ice motion ve ctors, estimating the fraction of several ice types, and detecting oce an waves in SAR data. It was designed for automated operation, an impo rtant requirement of such systems dedicated to the routine conversion of imagery from high data rate sensors into geophysical products. Here , we give an overview of the system and discuss the features which wer e implemented to provide an integrated capability for supporting autom ated geophysical analysis of SAR image data.