Open house celebrates 15 years of satellite data

Submitted by Amy Hartley
Phone: (907) 474-5823
08/22/06

In celebration of the 15th anniversary of its first synthetic aperture radar data downlink, the Alaska Satellite Facility will host an open house Saturday, Aug. 26, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Elvey Building on the University of Alaska Fairbanks campus. The community is invited to come out and learn more about this facility that provides services worldwide.

One example was the December 2004 wreck of the ship Selendang Ayu near Dutch Harbor. As pounding surf and ferocious winds tore apart the ship, the U.S. Coast Guard turned to the Alaska Satellite Facility (ASF) for help. ASF immediately utilized satellite data to help the rescue effort and continued monitoring the region to help with the lengthy oil cleanup afterwards.

Synthetic aperture radar (SAR) is the tool that enables ASF to provide information in such emergencies. SAR is a valuable resource since it sees through darkness, clouds and smoke. As in the case of the Selendang Ayu, emergencies requiring SAR data often occur in dark and stormy conditions.

The Alaska Satellite Facility is situated at a high latitude, nearly 65 degrees, and is at an ideal location to receive SAR data from polar-orbiting satellites. ASF receives data from these satellites 20 times per day on average.

Due to recent technological developments, ASF will improve the lives of people in Interior Alaska, too. Developments in forest fire monitoring, such as improved mapping of fire scars, soil moisture mapping and calculation of fuel quantities in unburned forests, will greatly help control big summer blazes in Alaska. SAR is useful in such applications because it can see through smoke.

Photos available upon request.

CONTACT: Rebecca Sanches, Alaska Satellite Facility User Services at (907) 474-6175. Alaska Satellite Facility main line at (907) 474-6166. Amy Hartley, Geophysical Institute Information Officer, at (907) 474-5823 or via e-mail at amy.hartley@gi.alaska.edu.

ON THE WEB: www.asf.alaska.edu/anniversary.html