Julie:
We worked hard for several days trying to learn more about SAR images. We talked to friends, went to the library and even searched the Internet.
Steve:
We learned that the Alaska Satellite Facility (ASF) at the University of Alaska Fairbanks has the largest collection of SAR images for
Alaska. We wrote to ASF telling them about our mission and received lots and lots of SAR images. We started looking carefully at each
image.
Tim:
I found it! I found it! In fact, I have found many treasure boxes. Look, there are so many bright points!
Steve:
Think about it. Great-grandfather only had one treasure box. Here you have many bright points and all in one line. This looks like a long metal thing, perhaps the Pipeline that grandma told us about. Let us look somewhere else.
Tim:
Oh, this time I have really found it.
Julie:
This looks like a bright target on open water. I think this can not be our treasure box. Our treasure box is full of gold and would sink in the water. This is perhaps a ship sailing by. Look at the 'tail' it has formed by disturbing the calm water.
Steve:
We have spent countless number of hours looking at the SAR images. We have identified seventeen sites.
Our treasure box may be at any one of these sites.
Julie:
We must go to Alaska to find if our treasure box is at one of these sites.
Tim:
Uncle Roger and his friends have promised to help us in Alaska. I am so excited. I am also very nervous. I really hope we find the treasure.
More information: About the UAF, GI, and ASF
The University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF)
is the nation's northernmost Land, Sea, and Space Grant university.
was founded in 1917 and has about 10,000 students from 50 states and 39 foreign countries.
has 8 campuses across the state.
is the home of the Nanooks (Eskimo word for polar bear), a name given to UAF sport teams.
The Geophysical Institute (GI)
is the flagship research institute of UAF.
has scientific research projects which reach from the center of the Sun to the center of the Earth and beyond.
has about 60 faculty and 80 graduate/undergraduate students carrying out research at high latitudes relating to their location within the Arctic.
operates the Poker Flat Research Range, the world's only university-owned scientific rocket launching facility.
The Alaska Satellite Facility (ASF)
is housed within the Geophysical Institute at UAF.
is one of the Distributed Active Archive Centers (DAACs) sponsored by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).
downlinks, processes, archives, and distributes SAR data from many SAR satellites.
More information: About the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System
The Trans Alaska Pipeline System, called "The Pipeline" by Alaskans, is one of the greatest engineering projects of the world.
In 1968, oil was discovered on the North Slope of Alaska. The only way to carry this oil from the North Slope of Alaska was by a pipeline over land. In the 1970s the 800 mile-long Pipeline was constructed to move oil from Prudhoe Bay on the Arctic Ocean (start point) to the port of Valdez (end point). Valdez is the northernmost ice-free port in North America.
The Pipeline
is 800 miles long.
uses pipes with a 48 inch diameter.
construction started in 1975 and completed in 1977.
cost $8 billion in 1977 to build.
crosses three mountain ranges and over 800 rivers and streams.
accounts for roughly 20 percent of US oil production annually.