Space Radar Image of Mammoth, California in 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 out-crops 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.

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).