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sc-inund.txt
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1995-02-23
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PUBLIC INFORMATION OFFICE
JET PROPULSION LABORATORY
CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION
PASADENA, CALIFORNIA 91109. TELEPHONE (818) 354-5011
PHOTO CAPTION P-43921
April 16, 1994
Manaus inundation map
These two images were created using data from the Spaceborne
Imaging Radar-C/X-Band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SIR-C/X-SAR).
On the left is a false-color image of Manaus, Brazil acquired
April 12, 1994, onboard space shuttle Endeavour. In the center
of this image is the Solimoes River just west of Manaus before it
combines with the Rio Negro to form the Amazon River. The scene
is around 8 by 8 kilometers (5 by 5 miles) with north toward the
top. The radar image was produced in L-band where red areas
correspond to high backscatter at HH polarization, while green
areas exhibit high backscatter at HV polarization. Blue areas
show low backscatter at VV polarization. The image on the right
is a classification map showing the extent of flooding beneath
the forest canopy. The classification map was developed by SIR-
C/X-SAR science team members at the University of California,
Santa Barbara. The map uses the L-HH, L-HV, and L-VV images to
classify the radar image into six categories:
Red flooded forest
Green unflooded tropical rain forest
Blue open water, Amazon river
Yellow unflooded fields, some floating grasses
Gray flooded shrubs
Black floating and flooded grasses
Data like these help scientists evaluate flood damage on a global
scale. Floods are highly episodic and much of the area inundated
is often tree-covered.
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Spaceborne Imaging Radar-C and X-Synthetic Aperture Radar
(SIR-C/X-SAR) is part of NASA's Mission to Planet Earth. The
radars illuminate Earth with microwaves allowing detailed
observations at any time, regardless of weather or sunlight
conditions. SIR-C/X-SAR uses three microwave wavelengths: L-band
(24 cm), C-band (6 cm) and X-band (3 cm). The multi-frequency
data will be used by the international scientific community to
better understand the global environment and how it is changing.
The SIR-C/X-SAR data, complemented by aircraft and ground
studies, will give scientists clearer insights into those
environmental changes which are caused by nature and those
changes which are induced by human activity. SIR-C was developed
by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. X-SAR was developed by the
Dornier and Alenia Spazio companies for the German space agency,
Deutsche Agentur fuer Raumfahrtangelegenheiten (DARA), and the
Italian space agency, Agenzia Spaziale Italiana (ASI), with the
Deutsche Forschungsanstalt fuer Luft und Raumfahrt e.v. (DLR),
the major partner in science, operations and data processing of
X-SAR.
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