NASA's Spaceborne Imaging Radar-C (SIR-C) launched on April 9, 1994, a decade after its predecessors (SIR-A and SIR-B). SIR-C was integrated with the German-built X-Band Synthetic Aperture Radar (X-SAR) to capture images of Earth across three different wavelengths.

The SIR-C instrument flew on two separate shuttle missions (STS-59 and STS-68, respectively) and collected data on terrestrial soil moisture content, ocean dynamics, volcanism and tectonic activity, and soil erosion and desertification.

The SIR-C/X-SAR payload, a collaborative effort between NASA/JPL, DARA/DLR, and the Italian Space Agency (ASI), was carried aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour as part of NASA’s Mission to Planet Earth. This experiment marked a significant progression in NASA’s SIR program, which originated with Seasat in 1978 and continued with SIR-A in 1981 and SIR-B in 1984. It also extended Germany’s imaging radar program, which began with the Microwave Remote Sensing Experiment (MRSE) on the first SPACELAB mission in 1983.

NASA’s Alaska Satellite Facility Distributed Active Archive Center (ASF DAAC) has made many of SIR-C data available to the public as beta products.