Thomas Ager: The Essentials of SAR (Synthetic Aperture Radar) - MBM#60

Thomas Ager worked for 30y at the National Geospatial Agency on Radar satellite images and recently released ‘The Essentials of SAR’ a book breaking down Synthetic Aperture Radar for, as he puts it, “non electrical engineers” Sponsor: Planet Find more about accessing Planet's high resolution & high frequency images About TomLinkedIn • His book: The Essentials of SAR ( Affiliate Link • ) Also available in MandarinShownotes Note: Links to books are Amazon Affiliate links. I earn a small commission if you buy any of these books.

My Interview with Iain Woodhouse: Understanding Radar Satellite ImagesTom’s interview on Project GeospatialMapping London’s deformation70cm mapping of the Moon • Book (and poem!) recommendation • Who Is Fourier? ( Affiliate Link • ) • Project Geospatial: https://www.youtube.com/@ProjectgeospatialFern Hill by Dylan Thomas Timestamps

(00:00) - Introduction

(01:13) - Sponsor: Planet

(02:28) - Tom describes himself

(04:13) - National Geospatial Agency

(05:46) - Why should anyone care about radar images?

(09:52) - Why not just fly plane?

(10:54) - SAR in the 80s

(23:14) - Finding early use in SAR

(27:09) - Skepticism in new tech

(30:09) - Phase

(35:32) - Bringing poetry to physics

(42:01) - The most astonishing element of SAR

(48:41) - Future of SAR

(51:51) - The next step

(56:49) - The language issue

(59:45) - Tom's book

(01:02:46) - Tom's book dedication

(01:04:49) - Teaching

(01:07:40) - Getting NGA's approval on the book

(01:09:09) - Doing what people tell you not to do

(01:11:34) - Machine Learning in SAR

(01:15:55) - Book & Podcast recommendation

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