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: PlanetFind more about accessing Planet's high resolution & high frequency imagesAbout TomLinkedInHis book: The Essentials of SAR (Affiliate Link)Also available in MandarinShownotesNote: 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 MoonBook (and poem!) recommendationWho Is Fourier? (Affiliate Link)Project Geospatial: https://www.youtube.com/@ProjectgeospatialFern Hill by Dylan ThomasTimestamps(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 recommendationSupport the podcast on PatreonMy video on an introduction to satellite imagesWebsiteMy TwitterPodcast TwitterRead Previous Issues of the NewsletterEdited by Peter XiongFind more of his work