3D flight over S. Francisco using AIRSAR/TOPSAR Imaging Radar Data July 20, 1995

This animation was created from a single AIRSAR/TOPSAR dataset recorded over the San Francisco Bay area on April 1, 1994 at noon. The imaging radar used in this movies has two meter vertical accuracy with ten meter pixel spacings horizontally. The brightness of each pixel indicates the radar reflectivity of the ground at the spot.
The heights were derived from the TOPSAR data. Pixels of the same hue have the same height, green represents the lowest height and white the highest. The heights are not exaggerated.

This animation begins high above the Golden Gate Bridge and drops down over the Marin headlands to cruising height of 400 meters.
A tour of San francisco takes us along the piers of the bay shore and after reaching the Bay Bridge crosses the city to the Pacific coast.
We head south along the coastline to the northern terminus of the Santa Cruz Mountains where we turn and rise to an elevation of 8500 meters looking northwards at the peninsula. A large reservoir lies on the San Andreas Faut which diagonally crosses the center of the last frame.

Produced by the Solar System Visualization Project in cooperation with the NASA/JPL AIRSAR group at the JPL Digital Image Animation Laboratory by:

B.D. Chapman, E.M. De Long, J.R. Hall, F.R. Hartman, S. Hensley, J.D. Klein, M. MacAuley, H.A. Zebker