April 20, 1995, Star City-Russia in
the L & C bands
This radar image shows the Star City cosmonaut training center,
east of Moscow, Russia. Four American astronauts trained here
for the long-duration flights aboard the Russian Mir space station.
These joint flights are giving NASA and the Russian Space Agency
experience necessary for the construction of the international
Alpha space station, beginning in late 1999. This image was acquired
by the Spaceborne Imaging Radar-C/X-band Synthetic Aperture Radar
(SIR-C/X-SAR), on its 62nd orbit on October 3, 1994. This Star
City image is centered at 55.55 degrees north latitude and 38.0
degrees east longitude. The area shown is approximately 32 kilometers
by 49 kilometers (20 miles by 30 miles). North is to the top in
this image. The radar illumination is from the top of the image.
The image was produced using three channels of SIR-C radar data:
red indicates L-band (23 cm wavelength, horizontally transmitted
and received); green indicates L-band (horizontally transmitted
and vertically received); blue indicates C-band (6 cm wavelength,
horizontally transmitted and vertically received). In general,
dark pink areas are agricultural; pink and light blue areas are
urban communities; black areas represent lakes and rivers; dark
blue areas are cleared forest; and light green areas are forested.
The prominent black runways just right of center are Shchelkovo
Airfield, about 4 km long. The textured pale blue-green area east
and southeast of Shchelkovo Airfield is forest. Just east of the
runways is a thin railroad line running southeast; the Star City
compound lies just east of the small bend in the rail line. Star
City contains the living quarters and training facilities for
Russian cosmonauts and their families. Moscow's inner loop road
is visible at the lower left edge of the image. The Kremlin is
just off the left edge, on the banks of the meandering Moskva
River. The Klyazma River snakes to the southeast from the reservoir
in the upper left (shown in bright red), passing just east of
Star City and flowing off the lower right edge of the image. The
dark blue band of the Vorya River runs north-south in the upper
right quadrant, east of Star City. SIR-C/X-SAR radar images are
being compared with data from the Russian radar satellite Almaz
to evaluate the usefulness of a permanent orbital radar platform
in monitoring Earths environment and ecology.
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Europe area of Russia