SIR-C Video Clips

Video clips about the SIR-C missions can be found in the directory /ROADMAP/MOVIES/QTMOVIES. The movie clips are in the files named:

Play the movie clips in the order listed above. They are located in the directory /ROADMAP/MOVIES/QTMOVIES on the CD. To play the movie clips, you may need to first install the Quicktime Movie Player located in the /SOFTWARE/QUICKTIM directory on the CD. Loading the AntMo2SP.mov movie in the Quicktime Movie Player will display a window like below.

Click on the arrow in the bottom left-hand corner to play each movie. A discussion of the movie clips follows.

Antenna Movie

The first movie clip, AntMo2SP.mov (3,513K Movie), shows a time lapse video of the SIR-C antenna under construction in a clean room. The video uses time-lapse photography to show the building of the SIR-C radar. Construction is at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. The construction takes place in a "CLEAN ROOM," which is continually having its air filtered and circulated. The engineers constructing the radar change their clothes when they begin to work with the electronic equipment. This equipment is extremely sensitive and even the smallest dust particles could potentially disrupt their functioning.

The video shows the construction of the SIR-C antenna and electronics over a period of several months during 1993. The antenna is the huge, billboard-sized structure. The massive support structure of girders on the back of the antenna is designed to keep the antenna very flat when in space and also holds the electronic components to operate the antenna.

Shuttle Launch and Land

The second movie clip, LaunLand.mov (4,836K Movie), shows the Space Shuttle Endeavour being launched on one of the SIR-C missions, the SIR-C antenna in the Shuttle payload bay and then the Endeavour landing at Edwards Air Force Base in California

SIR-C Supersites

The third movie clip, SiteShow.mov (9,965K Movie), shows the location of all of the SIR-C supersites on a map of the world.

Ground Data Collection

The fourth movie clip, ManausCR.mov (2,270K Movie), shows a video taken at one of the supersites during the first SIR-C mission in April 1994. The video was taken at the Manaus supersite in the Amazon, Brazil. It shows a large triangular-shaped reflector which was used to help calibrate the SIR-C radar data. A triangular-shaped reflector is used because we know its radar cross section, so we can compare with the measurement from the data. The reflector was placed in a clear-cut area (for raising beef cattle) with uncleared rain forest in the background

Radar Sees Through Clouds

The fifth movie clip, PrAlbert.mov (1,126K Movie), compares the astronauts view from the Space Shuttle with a radar view of the Prince Albert supersite in Canada.

Mapping Snow Wetness

The sixth movie clip, MammoWet.mov (2,922K Movie), shows a map of snow wetness produced from SIR-C data obtained over Mammoth Mountain in California. Maps like this can be used to predict run-off in the Spring thaw. This is important in Southern California (and many other places world-wide) since much of their water comes from run-off in the Sierra Nevada.

A New View of Death Valley

The seventh movie clip, DVMoviSP.mov (1,088K Movie), shows a flight around Death Valley in California generated from radar data overlaid on a map of surface heights.

Getting Close to a Chain of Volcanoes

The eighth movie clip, GalapMSP.mov (5,981K Movie), shows a flight around the Galapagos volcanic island chain in the Pacific generated from radar data overlaid on a map of surface heights. The surface heights were also obtained from radar data, using the technique of radar interferometry.

Radar and the Gorillas

The ninth movie clip, Gorilla.mov (4,694K Movie), shows SIR-C data being used to help scientists map the remaining habitat of the mountain gorillas in Rwanda, Africa. These gorillas live in an area which is very difficult and dangerous to access, and which is almost always covered in cloud. Hence the name given to these gorillas in the Hollywood motion picture based on scientist Diane Fossey's life story: 'The Gorillas in the Mist' .

Slides - Table of Contents

Converted to the IBM-PC by Al Wong, sirced03@southport.jpl.nasa.gov

Jet Propulsion Laboratory
4800 Oak Grove Drive
Pasadena, CA 91109