SPACEBORNE IMAGING RADAR-C/X-BAND
SYNTHETIC APERTURE RADAR (SIR-C/X-SAR)
October 9, 1994 San Francisco
California L band
This is a radar image of San Francisco, California, taken
on October 3, 1994. The image is about 40 kilometers by 55 kilometers
(25 miles by 34 miles) with north toward the upper right. Downtown
San Francisco is visible in the center of the image with the city
of Oakland east (to the right) across San Francisco Bay. Also
visible in the image is the Golden Gate Bridge (left center) and
the Bay Bridge connecting San Francisco and Oakland. North of
the Bay Bridge is Treasure Island. Alcatraz Island appears as
a small dot northwest of Treasure Island. This image was acquired
by the Spaceborne Imaging Radar-C and X-band Synthetic Aperture
Radar (SIR-C/X-SAR) aboard the space shuttle Endeavour on orbit
56. The image is centered at 37 degrees north latitude, 122 degrees
west longitude. This single-frequency SIR-C image was obtained
by the L-band (24 cm) radar channel, horizontally transmitted
and received. Portions of the Pacific Ocean visible in this image
appear very dark as do other smooth surfaces such as airport runways.
Suburban areas, with the low-density housing and tree-lined streets
that are typical of San Francisco, appear as lighter gray. Areas
with high-rise buildings, such as those seen in the downtown areas,
appear in very bright white, showing a higher density of housing
and streets which run parallel to the radar flight track. -----
Spaceborne Imaging Radar-C and X-band Synthetic Aperture Radar
(SIR-C/X-SAR) is part of NASA's Mission to Planet Earth. The radars
illuminate Earth with microwaves, allowing detailed observations
at any time, regardless of weather or sunlight conditions. SIR-C/X-SAR
uses three microwave wavelengths: the L-band (24 cm), C-band (6
cm) and X-band (3 cm). The multi-frequency data will be used by
the international scientific community to better understand the
global environment and how it is changing. The SIR-C/X-SAR data,
complemented by aircraft and ground studies, will give scientists
clearer insights into those environmental changes which are caused
by nature and those changes which are induced by human activity.
SIR-C was developed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. X-SAR
was developed by the Dornier and Alenia Spazio companies for the
German space agency, Deutsche Agentur fuer Raumfahrtangelegenheiten
(DARA), and the Italian space agency, Agenzia Spaziale Italiana
(ASI), with the Deutsche Forschungsanstalt fuer Luft und Raumfahrt
e.V.(DLR), the major partner in science, operations and data processing
of X-SAR.
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