Student Overview

Learning the Scientific Process and Understanding the Earth

By using the SIRCED03, students have the opportunity to learn how scientists work with radar data of the Earth in an attempt to enhance humanity's understanding of our home planet. The data on this CD-ROM is the culmination of a decade of work by NASA, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the German Space Agency (DARA), the Italian Space Agency (ASI), and many privates companies, universities, and government agencies.

Flown twice on the Space Shuttle Endeavour during 1994, SIR-C is the next step in NASA's Spaceborne Imaging Radar (SIR) program. This program began in 1978 with the Seasat Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) and continued with SIR-A in 1981 and SIR-B in 1984. This program will eventually lead to TOPSAT, a mission to measure global topography (the height of the Earth's surface and specific locations) and the Earth Observing System (EOS) SAR.

In addition to NASA's missions mentioned above, the SIR-C program also benefits from the Magellan mission to Venus, other international spaceborne SAR programs (e.g. ERS-1 and JERS-1), and airborne SAR sensors such as the Jet Propulsion Laboratory Airborne SAR (AIRSAR).

Building on the results from these missions, scientists are now using this data to enhance their knowledge of how Earth's land, oceans, and climate interact with each other. These scientists have waited a decade for this data and now we are presenting it to you.

As you have learned in your studies, science is an iterative, or repetitive, process. A scientist poses a question that will be studied. An experiment is conducted where data is collected. The data is then analyzed in an attempt to answer the question. Whether or not the question was answered, further experiments are conducted. This allows scientists to collect more data in support of their findings. Eventually, the scientist's findings are presented to a group of colleagues. This, however, is not the end of the process. Other scientists will take these findings and explore new scientific questions and applications.

You will learn how to use the scientific process as you work through the lesson plans. Working through the lessons in the order they are presented on the CD is not necessary. However, by doing so, you will learn about NASA's Mission to Planet Earth program. Questions such as how do we study the Earth as a system?, why do we take this approach in studying the Earth?, and how do we use the data gathered from SIR-C to assist us? will be addressed. Finally, you will learn how radar data can be used to assist in managing Earth's resources.

As you proceed through the lessons, you will study specific examples of the Earth. You'll learn about the physical characteristic of radar, how radar instruments work, and how radar data is used. At the end of your study, you will have gained a better understanding of how the dynamic processes of Earth interact. Our objective is for you to have fun while learning about radar and the Earth.