STASIS: A Concept for Sparse Interferometric Radiometry of the Antarctic Ice Sheet

We present the STASIS concept, an innovative approach to developing high spatial resolution maps of Antarctic ice sheet thermal emission at P/L band. Rather than using a large real aperture system, the relative stability of ice sheet temperature over time implies that a sparse array system would be able to gradually build up spatial frequency sampling and generate images with 1K sensitivity at 1-10 km spatial resolution over monthly-seasonal time scales. This contrasts with the requirement for full snapshot spatial frequency coverage required by systems for monitoring soil moisture and ocean salinity Sensitivity heuristic calculations are presented, and simulated interferometric observations are generated incorporating a realistic ice sheet thermal emission model.