Space to Ground: Alaska Satellite Facility

Narration: Katie Jepson

Transcript:

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On the ground,

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These large dishes are used to communicate

with NASA's Earth-observing satellites.

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Here, the data is downloaded

and made public, which helps

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scientists connect the dots between what

we see from space to on the ground.

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But why are these dishes in Alaska?

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Dr. Meyer: So the reason why these stations,

like ASF, are built in Alaska

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is because Earth-observing satellites,

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if you think of their orbits,

they converge in the polar regions.

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So in Alaska, we can see the same

satellite more often than in the lower 48.

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Narration: In fact,

this facility is in the perfect position

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to receive data from one of NASA's

latest Earth-observing missions.

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NISAR is an upcoming satellite

that will be launched by NASA

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in collaboration with the Indian Space

Research Organization.

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It will use radar similar to

what is flown on NASA's airborne missions,

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like for ABoVE, to measure fine, centimeter-

scale, changes in Earth's surface.

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Dr. Meyer: What's interesting and unique about NISAR

is that it's going to cover the globe

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regularly every 12 days,

and it's going to do it at a

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a wavelength or a frequency range,

so-called L-band frequencies,

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that are very useful for doing Earth

observations.

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L-band will allow us to study ecosystem

changes

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and deformations of the Earth's surface

with higher accuracy

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and better spatial coverage

than we can with current systems in space.

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Narration: And in the Arctic,

some of the most pronounced environmental

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changes satellites can observe

are happening right down the road.