Purpose:
The western part of North America is the focus of intensive scientific research into a variety of plate boundary processes including earthquakes, volcanism, mountain building, and micro-plate tectonics. For example, the characterization and more complete understanding of the plate boundary deformation system, and its relationship to the occurrence of earthquakes, is a rich scientific problem that may ultimately lead to a reduction in seismic risk. Other natural processes that induce surface deformation such as land subsidence induced by water or oil extraction are also at work in western North America. The technique of spaceborne Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) provides an excellent means of observing deformation over broad areas. It is capable of 10's of meters spatial resolution at monthly or greater intervals. InSAR has proven to be a powerful tool to characterize large-scale deformation associated with active faults. It also can resolve small-scale deformation features such as shallow creep, postseismic and interseismic deformation. And it is an ideal tool for measuring land subsidence and improving digital terrain models.

Objectives:
The Western North America InSAR (WInSAR) Consortium is a collection of universities and public agencies created to manage the acquisition and archiving of spaceborne InSAR data over western North America for their mutual benefit. The major objectives of WInSAR are to:

• Promote the use and development of InSAR technology for scientific investigations, in particular but not limited to, seismic and magmatic processes, plate boundary deformation, land subsidence, and topographic mapping.
  
• Acquire SAR imagery in western North America, archive and catalog the data, and disseminate it for use by member organizations.
  
• Provide value-added InSAR products and software for use by the scientific community.
  
• Advocate the open exchange of SAR data by seeking to enlarge the number of member organizations.
  
• Solicit funds and promote programs and space missions to meet these objectives.