WE PROPOSE AN EFFORT TO DEVELOP A LOW COST PLATFORM-INDEPENDENT SOFTWARE DEFINED RADAR (SDRADAR) SMART SENSOR PAYLOAD THAT CAN ACT AS A NODE IN A NON-CENTRALIZED TASK-ORIENTED WIRELESS NETWORK. WE PLAN TO VALIDATE THIS SYSTEM THROUGH MEASUREMENT AND IMAGING TASKS ACROSS MULTIPLE ENVIRONMENTS INCLUDING WATER-TABLE DEPTH MONITORING SUBGLACIAL LAKE MAPPING AND/OR SOIL MOISTURE RETRIEVAL. SDRADAR BASED SENSORS ENJOY UNPARALLELED FLEXIBILITY AND DYNAMIC-CONFIGURABILITY IN COMPARISON TO TRADITIONAL DESIGNS AND HAVE EXCITING POTENTIAL AS BOTH DEVELOPMENT AND DEPLOYMENT PLATFORMS FOR SMART SENSOR NETWORKS DEPLOYED ACROSS A RANGE OF HOST PLATFORMS TO PERFORM SENSING AND IMAGING TASKS OPTIMALLY USING MULTISTATIC AND MIMO TOPOLOGIES. A SMART RADAR SENSOR NETWORK MADE UP OF SMALL UNMANNED AERIAL AND GROUND VEHICLES (UAVS AND UGVS RESPECTIVELY) AND IN-SITU GROUND-BASED SENSORS ARE FUNDAMENTALLY CAPABLE OF ACHIEVING COMPARABLE SIGNAL-TO-NOISE REQUIREMENTS AT SIGNIFICANTLY LOWER POWER THAN AIR AND SPACE-BORNE COUNTERPARTS. FURTHERMORE SUCH SMALL LOW-POWER SENSOR PLATFORMS ENJOY VASTLY REDUCED DEPLOYMENT AND OPERATIONAL COSTS. THUS THE DEVELOPMENT AND VALIDATION OF A COMMON SDRADAR SENSOR PLATFORM THAT CAN BE DEPLOYED AS A MULTI-MODE RADAR WIRELESS SENSOR NETWORK HOSTED ON UAV UGV AND IN-SITU NODES WOULD ADDRESS MULTIPLE NASA PART SCIENCE SCIENCE OBJECTIVES