home
***
CD-ROM
|
disk
|
FTP
|
other
***
search
/
Space & Astronomy
/
Space and Astronomy (October 1993).iso
/
mac
/
TEXT
/
JPLNEWS2
/
SIRC.PR
< prev
next >
Wrap
Text File
|
1993-05-03
|
3KB
|
68 lines
PUBLIC INFORMATION OFFICE
JET PROPULSION LABORATORY
CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION
PASADENA, CALIF. 91109. (818) 354-5011
Contact: Mary A. Hardin
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE March 23, 1993
The construction phase of the international Spaceborne
Imaging Radar-C/X-band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SIR-C/X-SAR)
mission has been completed and the radar system is now undergoing
compatibility testing at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in
preparation for launch.
The U.S. SIR-C and the German-Italian X-SAR will fly aboard
the space shuttle Atlantis in April 1994 as part of the first
Space Radar Laboratory (SRL-1).
"We have now completed the construction of a radar system
that represents a new generation of spaceborne remote sensing
radars," said Michael Sander, the JPL SIR-C mission manager.
"This radar is a major step forward for Earth observations."
A useful feature of imaging radar, also called synthetic
aperture radar (SAR), is its ability to collect data over
virtually any region, regardless of weather or sunlight
conditions. The radar waves can penetrate clouds, and under
certain conditions the radar can also see through vegetation, ice
and dry sand.
"In many cases, radar is the only way scientists can explore
inaccessible regions of the Earth's surface," said Dr. Diane
Evans, JPL SIR-C project scientist. "In addition, the
sensitivity of SAR to soil, snow and vegetation moisture provides
information that is critical to our understanding of global
change."
The SIR-C/X-SAR mission is a major technical step forward in
the evolution of spaceborne imaging radar. It is the first
spaceborne radar system that will simultaneously acquire images
at multiple wavelengths and polarizations.
"Radars using several frequencies are to Earth observations
what the transition from black and white to color pictures was to
photography," said Dr. Manfred Wahl, X-SAR project manager.
SIR-C, built by JPL and the Ball Aerospace Corp.'s
Communications Systems Division for NASA, is a two-frequency
radar including L-band (23-cm wavelength) and C-band (6-cm
wavelength). SIR-C will have the capability to transmit and
receive horizontally and vertically polarized waves at both
frequencies.
X-SAR is built by Dornier and Alenia Spazio companies for
the German space agency, Deutsche Agentur fuer
Raumfahrtangelegenheiten (DARA), and the Italian space agency,
Agenzia Spaziale Italiana (ASI). It is a single-polarization
radar operating at X-band (3-cm wavelength).
The SIR-C portion of the mission is sponsored by NASA's
Office of Mission to Planet Earth.
#####
3-23-93 MAH
#1500