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Release Date: September 21, 1994
Media Contact: Media & External Communications, (509) 375-3776
ENERGY DEPARTMENT TO TEST REMOTE SENSING EQUIPMENT
RICHLAND, WA -- A Navy plane will test remote sensing equipment during the next two weeks in flights over portions of Washington, Oregon and Idaho.
As part of a U.S. Department of Energy research program, a Lockheed P-3 will conduct a series of day and night flights to evaluate an airborne multisensor system's performance.
The P-3, a military, four-engine plane comparable in size to a commercial DC-9, will fly at altitudes varying from 457 meters (1,500 feet) to 6,096 meters (20,000 feet) over several locations, including the Hanford Site, the Washington State University Irrigated Agriculture Center near Prosser, the Umatilla Army Depot and the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory Site.
The multisensor system consists of two sensor pods mounted underneath the aircraft wings and associated monitoring equipment aboard the aircraft. One pod contains a synthetic aperture radar system that forms images by sending energy earthward and sensing echoes of the reflected energy. The second pod contains photographic and thermal imaging instruments. Images obtained from both pods' instruments can be used for applications including verification, surveillance, navigation and inventory of the Earth's resources.
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