P-49624 February 26, 1998
This radar image covers a portion of the Richtersveld National
Park and Orange River (top of image) in the Northern Cape
Province of the Republic of South Africa. The Orange River marks
the boundary between South Africa to the south and Namibia to the
north. This is an area of active mining for diamonds, which were
washed downstream from the famous Kimberley Diamond Area,
millions of years ago when the river was much larger. The mining
is focused on ancient drainages of the Orange River which are
currently buried by think layers of sand and gravel. Scientists
are investigating whether these ancient drainages can be seen
with the radar's ability to penetrate sand cover in extremely dry
regions. A mine, shown in yellow, is on the southern bank of the
river in an abandoned bend which is known as an "oxbow." The
small bright circular areas (left edge of image) west of the mine
circles are fields of a large ostrich farm that are being watered
with pivot irrigation. The large dark area in the center of the
image is the Kubus Pluton, a body of granite rock that broke
through the surrounding rocks about 550 million years ago. North
is toward the upper right. The area shown is about 55 by 60
kilometers (34 by 37 miles) centered at 28.4 degrees south
latitude, 16.8 degrees east longitude. Colors are assigned to
different different radar frequencies and polarizations as
follows: red is L-band horizontally transmitted and horizontally
received; green is L-band horizontally transmitted and vertically
received; blue is C-band horizontally transmitted and vertically
received. The image was acquired on April 18, 1994 by the
Spaceborne Imaging Radar-C/X-band Synthetic Aperture (SIR-C/X-
SAR) imaging radar when it flew aboard the space shuttle
Endeavour. SIR-C/X-SAR is a joint mission of the U.S./German
and Italian space agencies.
For a full-resolution (17.7 Megabyte) copy of this image, press
here
For a browse resolution (227 Kilobyte) copy of this image, press
here
Click on this image for a more detailed browse image.
P-49625 February 26, 1998
This radar image shows a close up view of a portion of the
Richtersveld National Park and Orange River (top of image) in the
Northern Cape Province of the Republic of South Africa. The
Orange River marks the boundary between South Africa to the south
and Namibia to the north. This is an area of active mining for
diamonds, which were washed downstream from the famous Kimberley
Diamond Area, millions of years ago when the river was much
larger. The mining is focused on ancient drainages of the Orange
River which are currently buried by think layers of sand and
gravel. Scientists are investigating whether these ancient
drainages can be seen with the radar's ability to penetrate sand
cover in extremely dry regions. A mine, shown in yellow, is on
the southern bank of the river in an abandoned bend which is
known as an "oxbow." The small bright circular areas (left edge
of image) west of the mine circles are fields of a large ostrich
farm that are being watered with pivot irrigation. The large dark
area in the center of the image is the Kubus Pluton, a body of
granite rock that broke through the surrounding rocks about 550
million years ago. North is toward the upper right. The area
shown is about 35 by 25 kilometers (21.8 by 15.5 miles) centered
at 28.4 degrees south latitude, 16.8 degrees east longitude.
Colors are assigned to different radar frequencies and
polarizations as follows: red is L-band horizontally transmitted
and horizontally received; green is L-band horizontally
transmitted and vertically received; blue is C-band horizontally
transmitted and vertically received. The image was acquired on
April 18, 1994 by the Spaceborne Imaging Radar-C/X-band Synthetic
Aperture (SIR-C/X-SAR) imaging radar when it flew aboard the
space shuttle Endeavour. SIR-C/X-SAR is a joint mission of the
U.S./German and Italian space agencies.
For a full-resolution (6.1 Megabyte) copy of this image, press
here
For a browse resolution (311 Kilobyte) copy of this image, press
here
Spaceborne Imaging Radar-C and X-Band 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.
