Dryden Home > Collections > Photo Home > DC-8 > Photo # ED04-0056-099 |
The Cuernos del Paine mountains in Torres del Paine National Park, Chile, during NASA's AirSAR 2004 campaign. |
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Photo Number: | ED04-0056-099 |
Photo Date: | March 11, 2004 |
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Formats: | 578x480 JPEG Image (177 KBytes) 1233x1024 JPEG Image (691 KBytes) 2889x2400 JPEG Image (3017 KBytes) |
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Photo Description: |
The Cuernos del Paine mountains in Torres del Paine National Park, Chile, during NASA's AirSAR 2004 campaign. AirSAR 2004 is a three-week expedition in Central and South America by an international team of scientists that is using an all-weather imaging tool, called the Airborne Synthetic Aperture Radar (AirSAR), located onboard NASA's DC-8 airborne laboratory. Scientists from many parts of the world are combining ground research with NASA's AirSAR technology to improve and expand on the quality of research they are able to conduct.
Founded in 1959, Torres del Paine National Park encompasses 450,000 acres in the Patagonia region of Chile. This region is being studied by NASA using a DC-8 equipped with an Airborne Synthetic Aperture Radar (AirSAR) developed by scientists from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. This is a very sensitive region that is important to scientists because the temperature has been consistently rising causing a subsequent melting of the region’s glaciers. AirSAR will provide a baseline model and unprecedented mapping of the region. This data will make it possible to determine whether the warming trend is slowing, continuing or accelerating. AirSAR will also provide reliable information on ice shelf thickness to measure the contribution of the glaciers to sea level. |
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Project Description: |
AirSAR collects multi-frequency and multi-polarization radar data for a variety of science applications. It also acquires data in interferometric modes, providing topographic information (cross-track mode) or ocean current information (along-track interferometry). This March 2004 deployment was planned to:
During the deployment data is collected over Central and South America and Antarctica. During the approximately 100 flight hours, AirSAR is acquiring polarimetric and/or interferometric data along a 20,000 km track, or about 200,000 sq. km of data over 40 sites for 30 scientists. AirSAR will collect data related to the following NASA Code YS science programs:
NASA used a DC-8 aircraft as a flying science laboratory. The platform aircraft, was based at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards, Calif., collected data for many experiments in support of scientific projects serving the world scientific community. Included in this community were NASA, federal, state, academic and foreign investigators. Data gathered by the DC-8 at flight altitude and by remote sensing has been used for scientific studies in archeology, ecology, geography, hydrology, meteorology, oceanography, volcanology, atmospheric chemistry, soil science and biology. |
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NASA Photo by: | Jim Ross |
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Keywords: | DC-8, airborne science, airborne laboratory, AirSAR, Airborne Synthetic Aperture Radar, South America, Chile, Patagonia, Cuernos del Paine mountains, Torres del Paine National Park, Glacier Grey, Lago Grey |
Dryden Home > Collections > Photo Home > DC-8 > Photo # ED04-0056-099 |
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