SIR-CED02 intro

SPACEBORNE IMAGING RADAR FOR MONITORING THE EARTH'S ENVIRONMENT - AN EDUCATIONAL PACKAGE

A Freeman and K. Crandall

Jet Propulsion Laboratory

California Institute of Technology

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory has produced an educational package entitled 'The SIR-C Education Program' (SIR-CED), designed as a two- to three-week module for middle school and high school students. The SIR-CED package has also been used to teach college-level undergraduates, particularly those taking non-science majors, and by engineers and scientists with an interest in radar imaging, but who are not necessarily imaging radar specialists. The package includes two educational CD-ROMs called the SIR-C Education Pre-launch CD-ROM, Volume ID SIRCED01 and the SIR-C Education Post-launch CD-ROM, Volume ID SIRCED02. In the SIR-CED program students receive some training in understanding, displaying and analyzing radar images, then may choose their own research project to explore further. Students are given access to the same data and data analysis tools used by scientists who utilize radar images in their studies.

The SIR-C/X-SAR imaging radar flying over Los Angeles

SIR-C stands for Spaceborne Imaging Radar-C and is the acronym used for a radar instrument built to fly on the Space Shuttle and take radar 'pictures' of the Earth, like the one shown above. SIR-C flew on the Space Shuttle Endeavour in April and October of 1994. Radar images generated by SIR-C are being used by scientists to help understand some of the global processes which affect the Earth's environment, such as deforestation in the Amazon, desertification south of the Sahara, and soil moisture retention in the mid-West United States.

Imaging radars provide a unique way of looking at the Earth and other planetary bodies. An imaging radar works very like a flash camera in that it provides its own light to illuminate an area of interest and take a snapshot picture, but at radio wavelengths. The chief advantages of using radar are its ability to 'see' at night and through thick cloud cover. There are currently several operational spaceborne and airborne imaging radars being used for remote sensing of the Earth's environment, with more to come in the near future.

SIR-C/X-SAR's unique contributions to Earth observation and monitoring are its capability to measure, from space, the radar signature of the surface at three different wavelengths (24 cm, 6 cm and 3 cm), and to make measurements for different polarizations at two of those wavelengths. SIR-C image data will help scientists understand the physics behind some of the phenomena seen in radar images at just one wavelength/polarization, such as those produced by an earlier NASA imaging radar on board the SEASAT satellite, or those generated by the European ERS-1 or the Japanese JERS-1. Investigators on the SIR-C/X-SAR Science team will use the radar image data from SIR-C/X-SAR to make measurements of the following:

* Vegetation type, extent and deforestation

* Soil moisture content

* Ocean dynamics, wave and surface wind speeds and directions

* Volcanism and tectonic activity

* Soil erosion and desertification

SIR-C is combined with another imaging radar called the X-band Synthetic Aperture Radar or X-SAR. SIR-C/X-SAR is a joint project of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the German Space Agency (DARA) and the Italian Space Agency (ASI). You'll find out more about SIR-C, X-SAR and how scientists use imaging radar on the SIR-CED CD-ROMs.

World Wide Web sites

To find out even more about imaging radar activities at JPL, World Wide Web users can take a look at the NASA/JPL Imaging Radar Home Page. The radar group at JPL have set up a World Wide Web server site, which can be accessed using a browse tool such as NCSA's Mosaic. The URL for the site is:

http://southport.jpl.nasa.gov/

The site contains up-to-date information on the imaging radar program at JPL, radar images and results from the two SIR-C missions, sample data and videos, information on how to get radar images and software for displaying radar images, plus links to other sites which distribute radar images, including a World Wide Web site known as AskEric, maintained by Syracuse University, which has the Teachers' Guide and Lesson Plans from SIR-CED on-line at URL:

http://ericir.syr.edu/NASA/nasa.html

How to use the SIR-CED CD-ROMs

The SIR-CED CD-ROMs can be opened using a CD reader on Macintosh, SUN, and IBM PC computers. They contain a User's guide, a guide for teachers, lesson plans, and images from sites all around the world covered by SIR-C. Software for displaying the images provided on all three supported computer platforms is included on the CD. The comprehensive data set incorporated into the SIR-CED CD-ROM may also be useful for some engineers and scientists, who wish to explore the potential of radar observation. The CDs are designed so that they can be used separately, so you don't have to have both of them to begin using the SIR-CED program. You'll find a description below of the contents of each of the two SIR-CED CD-ROMs, plus some frequently asked questions.

SIRCED01

The SIRCED01 CD-ROM contains a pre-launch look at the SIR-C/X-SAR mission, the sites to be covered and the science planned for the mission. To access the CD-ROM, you'll need a computer with a CD-ROM drive connected to it and properly installed. The SIR-CED CD-ROMs can be opened on Macintosh, PC, SUN and Indigo computer systems. Place the CD-ROM in the caddy of your CD drive, then gently insert the caddy into the drive itself, and off you go. On the Macintosh computer, when you open up the SIRCED01 CD-ROM, you should see three folders and six files arranged something like this:

Top level file organization of the SIRCED01 CD-ROM

On a PC or Unix computer, when you open the CD you'll see a directory listing like this:

Name Type

/Data Folder

/Document Folder

/Software Folder

IndexTx.txt text file (ASCII)

IndexWd.txt text file (Microsoft Word)

OverVuTx.txt text file (ASCII)

OverVuWd.txt text file (Microsoft Word)

ReadmeTx.txt text file (ASCII)

ReadmeWd.txt text file (Microsoft Word)

The contents of these files and folders, and how to access the information they contain, are described below.

ReadmeWd.txt - this text file describes the organization of the SIR-CED CD-ROM in more detail. Open this file first. If you have the program Microsoft Word (5.0 or higher recommended for the Macintosh, 6.0 for PCs), you can open this file using it.

ReadmeTx.txt - this text file describes the organization of the SIR-CED CD-ROM in more detail. This file is an MS-DOS text file version of the ReadmeWd.txt file. It can be opened using the program Teachtext on the Macintosh (provided) or using almost any Word Processing program on PC, SUN or Indigo computers.

OvervuWd.txt - this text file gives an overview of the SIR-CED program, including the overall aims, who should get involved, what equipment is needed, and who produced it. If you have the program Microsoft Word (5.0 or higher recommended for the Macintosh, 6.0 for PCs), you can open this file using it.

OvervuTx.txt - this text file gives an overview of the SIR-CED program, including the overall aims, who should get involved, what equipment is needed, and who produced it. This file is an MS-DOS text file version of the OvervuWd.txt file. It can be opened using the program Teachtext on the Macintosh (provided) or using almost any Word Processing program on PC, SUN or Indigo computers.

IndexWd.txt - this text file gives an index of all the data files on the CD-ROM. If you have the program Microsoft Word (5.0 or higher recommended for the Macintosh, 6.0 for PCs), you can open this file using it.

IndexTx.txt - this text file gives an index of all the data files on the CD-ROM. This file is an MS-DOS text file version of the IndexWd.txt file. It can be opened using almost any Word Processing program on Macintosh, PC, SUN or Indigo computers.

Document - this folder contains a complete set of the documents which form part of the overall SIR-CED package. They are a Teacher's Resource Guide, Lesson Plans and Presentation Slides, which are in separate folders labeled Teachers, Lessons and Slides. All of these documents were written in Microsoft Word for the Macintosh (v. 5.1).

Software - this folder contains the software for the Macintosh, PC, SUN and Indigo computers provided with the SIR-CED package, organized into folders which are labeled accordingly.

Data - this folder contains all the image data files used in the SIR-CED program. It is arranged into five sub-folders:

Mods1to4: contains all the data files referred to in the Lesson Plans

Supersit: contains all the image data for the SIR-C supersites

Othersit: contains all the image data for other sites of interest

FULLSIZE: contains some full size (12MByte) files from NASA/JPL's AIRSAR for selected scenes

gifs: contains GIF file format versions of the PICT files found in folders Mods1to4, Supersit and Othersit

SIRCED02

The SIRCED02 CD-ROM contains actual results and data from the two SIR-C/X-SAR missions. Some new features included on this second SIR-CED CD-ROM are movie visualizations from the missions and the data produced during them, a 'roadmap' to the CD-ROM which uses the Mosaic browse tool, a simplified top level directory structure, plus a sample project. Otherwise, the organization of the second SIR-CED CD-ROM is very similar to the first. To access the CD-ROM, you'll need a computer with a CD-ROM drive connected to it and properly installed. The SIR-CED CD-ROMs can be opened on Macintosh, PC, SUN and Indigo computer systems. Place the CD-ROM in the caddy of your CD drive, then gently insert the caddy into the drive itself, and off you go. On the Macintosh computer, when you open up the SIRCED02 CD-ROM, you should see four folders and two files arranged something like this:

Top level file organization of the SIRCED02 CD-ROM

On a PC or Unix computer, when you open the CD you'll see a directory listing something like this:

Name Type

/Data Folder

/Document Folder

/Roadmap Folder

/Software Folder

ReadmeTx.txt text file (ASCII)

ReadmeWd.txt text file (Microsoft Word)

The contents of these files and folders, and how to access the information they contain, are described below.

Roadmap - the contents of this folder let you take a look at the SIRCED02 CD-ROM using a browse tool called Mosaic developed by NCSA. If you are a regular World Wide Web user, you will probably have heard of Mosaic, which is a very powerful tool for accessing information (including text, images, videos, sound) on the Web. Mosaic can be run in local mode, to access information stored on your computer disk, or, as we have done on, a CD-ROM. We have provided versions of the Mosaic 'road map' for SIRCED02 for Macintosh, PC and Unix systems. These can be found in the folders Mac, PC and Unix inside the Roadmap folder.

ReadmeWd.txt - this text file describes the organization of the SIR-CED CD-ROM in more detail. Open this file first or take a look at the road map provided in the Roadmap folder. If you have the program Microsoft Word (5.0 or higher recommended for the Macintosh, 6.0 for PCs), you can open this file using it.

Software - this folder contains the software for the Macintosh, PC, SUN and Indigo computers provided with the SIR-CED package, organized into folders which are labeled accordingly.

Data - this folder contains all the image data files used in the SIR-CED program. It is arranged into five sub-folders:

Mods1to4: contains all the data files referred to in the Lesson Plans

Supersit: contains all the image data for the SIR-C supersites

Othersit: contains all the image data for other sites of interest

FULLSIZE: contains some full size (12MByte) files from NASA/JPL's AIRSAR for selected scenes

gifs: contains GIF file format versions of the PICT files found in folders Mods1to4, Supersit and Othersit