JET PROPULSION LABORATORY

CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION

PASADENA, CALIFORNIA 91109. TELEPHONE (818) 354-5011

PHOTO CAPTION P-43933

April 17, 1994

Mammoth 3-D

This is a three-dimensional perspective of Mammoth Mountain,

California. This view was constructed by overlaying a Spaceborne

Imaging Radar-C (SIR-C) radar image on a U.S. Geological Survey

digital elevation map. Vertical exaggeration is 1.87 times. The

image is centered at 37.6 degrees north, 119.0 degrees west. It

was acquired from the Spaceborne Imaging Radar C/X-Band

Synthetic Aperture Radar (SIR-C/X-SAR) onboard space shuttle

Endeavour on its 67th orbit on April 13, 1994. In this color

representation, red is C-band HV-polarization, green is C-band

VV-polarization and blue is the ratio of C-band VV to C-band HV.

Blue areas are smooth, and yellow areas are rock outcrops with

varying amounts of snow and vegetation. Crowley Lake is in the

foreground, and Highway 395 crosses in the middle of the image.

Mammoth Mountain is shown in the upper right.

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Spaceborne Imaging Radar-C and X-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: 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).

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