
A butterfly photographed in the La Selva region of the Costa Rican rain forest as part of NASA's AirSAR 2004 Mesoamerica campaign. AirSAR 2004 Mesoamerica is a three-week expedition by an international team of scientists that will use an all-weather imaging tool, called the Airborne Synthetic Aperture Radar (AirSAR) which is located onboard NASA's DC-8 airborne laboratory. Scientists from many parts of the world including NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory are combining ground research done in several areas in Central America with NASA's AirSAR technology to improve and expand on the quality of research they are able to do. NASA's AIRSAR technolgy provides two essential elements to the ground-based scientists. First, it tests and provides accurate measurements of the forest structure. Secondly, AirSAR can study a larger area of the forest versus the smaller area that can be tested and plotted by the ground scientists. It also provides a unique one-of-a-kind system of measurement that obtains important information for the scientists, such as where forests are located and what exactly is in them.
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NASA ID
ED04-0056-046
Date Created
March 4, 2004
Center
AFRC
Media Type
image
Photographer
NASA/Jim Ross
Location
AFRC
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Airborne Science personnel Walter Klein and David Bushman at the Mission Manager's console onboard NASA's DC-8 during the AirSAR 2004 campaign
Mar 3, 2004
Dr. Tom Mace, DFRC Director of Airborne Sciences, greets NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe as he enters the DC-8 aircraft during a stop-off on the AirSAR 2004 campaign
Mar 3, 2004
Tom Mace and Walter Klein(far right) brief John Danilovich, US Ambassador to Costa Rica, and NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe onboard NASA's DC-8
Mar 3, 2004
Chilean Air Force Captain Saez and Dr. Tom Mace discuss airborne science during a DC-8 ferry flight from Santiago to Punta Arenas, Chile
Mar 10, 2004