Image Gallery

Click on a small image to open the full-sized version. All images are 1024 x 768 pixels. Some have been resampled from larger scenes, others are full-resolution fragments. For full-resolution images, the ground resolution is given. For example: a resolution of 15 metres mean that one pixel equals 15 metres on the ground.

ERS Synthetic Aperture Radar Image Mode

In Image Mode, the SAR obtains strips of high-resolution (30 m) imagery, 100 km wide, to the right of the satellite track. The 10 m antenna, aligned parallel to the flight track, directs a narrow radar beam onto the Earth’s surface over the swath. Imagery is built up from the time delay, and the strength of the return signals, which depends primarily on the roughness and dielectric properties of the surface and the range from the satellite.

Copyright © European Space Agency

Bay of Naples

Naples, Vesuvius, Pozzuoli, the Sorrento Penisnsula and the islands of Ischia, Procida and Capri. The sea state is rough where the image is white, calm where it is dark. The backscatter also gives indirect information on land use, light areas show where the volcanic soil sustains orchards, while the darker zones are mostly pasture.
Resolution, 30 metres.

Straights of Gibraltar

Gibraltar and Tangier. Note the large standing waves discovered by ERS.
Resolution, 30 metres.

Oil slick detection

SAR is an excellent tool to monitor and detect oil on water surfaces in all weathers. Slicks appear as dark patches on SAR images because of the dampening effect of the oil on surface waves deflecting the backscattered signals from the radar.

There are no links to larger files from these two images.

Argentario, Giglio, Gianutri, Italy

Two oil slicks from ships are visible in this night image. The larger is about 22 km long, the other about 7 km.

Natural seepage, Caspian Sea

This corkscrew slick is due to natural seepage from the ocean floor, distinct from oil slicks from ships because it is a point source, the streaming direction conforms to prevailing winds and currents.

Multi-temporal SAR Images

Two or more SAR images from different dates can be combined. Assigning different colour bands to different dates will reveal any changes in radar reflectivity as different colours. This is useful for all kinds of change monitoring, particularly flooding, as in these examples, where the all-weather capabilities of the radar can provide a unique source of timely information.

Honduras, 1997

Blue areas indicate flooded zones.
Resolution, resampled.

Honduras, 1997, detail

Resolution: resampled

SAR Interferometry

Interferometric data can be used to construct Digital Elevation Models for 3D renderings and change monitoring. Above, a SAR image of Vesuvius.

Interferogram

Digital Elevation Model

RADARSAT

Canada's RADARSAT has a Synthetic Aperture Radar with a variety of imaging modes.

Copyright © RADARSAT International (RSI)

Antarctica

In 1999 RADARSAT imaged the whole of the Antarctic continent. This detail of the mosaic shows vast patterns of flow in the ices shelf at the edge of the Weddell Sea.
Resolution, resampled

Received by the Canada Centre for Remote Sensing and the Alaska SAR facility (ASF). Processed by RSI and ASF. Mosaic by the Byrd Polar Research centre.