Dear Colleague,

We would like to thank you for your interest in imaging radar data produced by the NASA/JPL imaging radar program. We will endeavor to satisfy your request for data if we are able to do so. The following information is required from you before we can begin this process:

1. Project Title

2. Where is your site? (Give center latitude and longitude and approximate size of area.)

3. What type of data are you interested in? (e.g., SIR-C, AIRSAR, or TOPSAR)

4. What are the objectives of your investigation?

5. How do you think radar image data will benefit your study?

6. Your full name, address, telephone and fax number and e-mail address.

A one-page summary of your project is all that is required (a sample is enclosed with this letter). If you have sent us some of this information before, please take the time to send it to us again. It will greatly simplify our operations if all requests are submitted in the same fashion.

Once you've completed the one-page summary of your project, please send it by fax or e-mail to:

Radar Data Center
Outreach Data Requests
Fax #: (818) 393 2640
e-mail: radar.data@jpl.nasa.gov

In return we will:

1. Check to see if your site was covered by the radar you specified (e.g., SIR-C, AIRSAR, TOPSAR).

2. If your site was covered during either of the SIR-C missions, we will email you the number(s) of the data takes that cover your site. The survey data (low-resolution) and precision data products for these data takes are posted on a World Wide Web site at the EROS Data Center at URL: http://sun1.cr.usgs.gov/landdaac/sir-c/sir-c.html/. Coverage maps are also posted. If you are not able to access the files over the internet, please contact the EDC customer service desk (605 594 6116) with the data take information.

In order to look at the SIR-C survey data over the World Wide Web you will need access to the Internet. The survey data are posted as both image data files (~1500 Kb) and as browse data files (~150 Kb) and can be downloaded directly through the Web.

3. We will send you a frame processing request for SIR-C data. You will need to identify the exact center of your site within the survey image and submit the frame processing request (together with a copy of your original one-page project summary) to obtain a full resolution product.

4. When we receive your request, it will be placed in our processing queue. Please be aware that it may take some time for your frame product to be processed (between four and six months is typical at present). Orders will be restricted to one frame product per user.

5. When your SIR-C request has been completed, we will send you a copy of the digital data on 8 mm tape (5 GByte capacity), an 8 1/2 x 11 photographic print, and a detailed format description.

6. If your request is for AIRSAR or TOPSAR data and the data over your site have been processed, we will send you a copy of the full-resolution AIRSAR digital data set on 8 mm tape (5 Gbyte capacity), an 8 1/2 x 11 photographic print, and a detailed format description document. There will be a nominal charge ($150-$250 US) for duplication of AIRSAR data.

Please be aware that NASA's data policy does not under any circumstance permit exclusive rights to data acquired by NASA for a NASA-funded program. Thus, the radar data over your site may also be distributed to other requesters.

To find out more about radar data or the NASA/JPL imaging radar program, we strongly suggest that you take a look at our NASA/JPL Imaging Radar Home Page.

If you have questions about the radar data, please send them to radar.queries@jpl.nasa.gov. You may also post queries to the bulletin board on the Imaging Radar Home Page.

Thanks again for your interest in imaging radar data.

Sincerely,

Ellen O'Leary
SIR-C Radar Data Center

Title: Searching for signs of former habitation in the Mojave Desert, California

Site Name and Location: Death Valley, CA (36.629N, -117.069W). Area is approximately 50km x 50km in size

Data Type: SIR-C

Objectives: In the Mojave Desert, numerous Native American tribes flourished during wetter climatic periods. We hope to use radar images to map previously known and unknown burial and settlement sites within the Death Valley National Park area. During the California Gold Rush in the mid-nineteenth century, many gold excavation and mining boom towns were established and later abandoned. We hope to use radar images to identify the boundaries of these abandoned mines and 'ghost towns' from space.

How radar will benefit our study: Our site is in one of the driest areas in the United States. The ability of radar to penetrate very dry soils may help us to locate the remains of buried settlements there. The sensitivity of radar to soil wetness may enable us to locate buried water sources, which may be associated with former settlements. Radar's sensitivity to the physical structure of the surface being imaged may also be useful in detecting man-made artifacts, such as the foundations of buildings, or former rail tracks.

Investigator team:

William F. Scott and Joseph A. Banks

Death Valley Ranch

Grapevine Canyon

Death Valley National Park,

CA 92328

Tel: (619) 555 2222

Fax: (619) 555 2223

e-mail: scotty@deathvalley.np.gov