glossary

pallino.jpg (2166 byte)ARC:
(Active Radar Calibrator) Electronic apparels wich receive a radar signal, amplify it and send it again to the transmitting antenna.

pallino.jpg (2166 byte)ASI:
Italian Space Agency

pallino.jpg (2166 byte)Band:
working frequency range of the antenna. For example the C-band cover the frequencies between 4 and 8 GHz, the X-band between 8 and 12 GHz and so on.

pallino.jpg (2166 byte)DEM:
(Digital Elevation Model ) is a representation point by point of the surface height obtained from Interferogram.

pallino.jpg (2166 byte) DEM 3D:
tri-dimensional view.

pallino.jpg (2166 byte) DL:
(Down Link) Transmission from the Space Shuttle to ground of only one radar data. This event is possible even while the radar is performing data acquisition. With a DL we can only produce an MRI image.

pallino.jpg (2166 byte)DLR:
(Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt) German Space Agency.

pallino.jpg (2166 byte) DT:
(Data Take): Acquisition of data from both the inboard and outboard radar.

pallino.jpg (2166 byte)GPS:
Global Positioning System.

pallino.jpg (2166 byte)Interferogram:
the different colors represent the different phase values; the steeper the slopes, the closer the fringes. Height contour levels can be inferred from fringes.

pallino.jpg (2166 byte)Interferometria:
Radar images elaboration technique which confront several images of the same area to obtain better details. In particular, one can highlights the changes among different images. It can be multitemporal or not: in the first case you confront and elaborate images recorded in different times, otherwise (and that is the case of this mission) at the same time you can obtain two images of the same area, which the Space Shuttle is flying on, using two different antennas.

pallino.jpg (2166 byte)JPL:
Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

pallino.jpg (2166 byte)MET:
(Mission Elapsed Time) Time elapsed from the lift off.

pallino.jpg (2166 byte)MRI:
(Medium Resolution Image): the gray values represent the strength of the reflected radar signal; the stronger the back-scattering the brighter the image. Two such images are needed to obtain the Interferogram.

pallino.jpg (2166 byte)NASA:
National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

pallino.jpg (2166 byte)NIMA:
National Imagery and Mapping Agency.

pallino.jpg (2166 byte)PB:
(Play Back) Transmission from the Space Shuttle to ground of both the inboard and outboard radar data. This event is possible only when the Space Shuttle is flying on the ocean with the radar off. With a PB we can produce a DEM.

pallino.jpg (2166 byte)Radar:
apparatus which transmit and receive signals with a particular frequency band to identify and locate objects measuring the distance or the elevation of the target.

pallino.jpg (2166 byte)RCS:
(Radar Cross Section) Identify in a certain manner the dimension of an object illuminated by a radar signal on the basis of the backscattered signal.

pallino.jpg (2166 byte)SAR:
(Synthetic Aperture Radar) Radar antenna whose dimension is simulated to be much more big than the physical dimension sampling the antenna signals while the antenna is moving. This technique is used to simulate a bigger antenna to obtain a better precision.

pallino.jpg (2166 byte)SIR-C:
Shuttle Imaging Radar-C

pallino.jpg (2166 byte)SRTM:
Shuttle Radar Topography Mission

pallino.jpg (2166 byte)X-SAR:
X-Synthetic Aperture Radar