PIA01310: Space radar image of Wadi Kufra, Libya

Target Name: Earth Is a satellite of: Sol (our sun) Mission: Spaceborne Imaging Radar-C/X-Band Synthetic Aperture Radar Spacecraft: Space Shuttle Instrument: Imaging Radar Product Size: 3112 samples x 4817 lines Produced By: JPL Producer ID: P45719 Addition Date: 1998-04-14 Primary Data Set: SIRC_PAGE Full-Res TIFF: PIA01310.tif (54.46 MB) Full-Res JPEG: PIA01310.jpg (4.357 MB)

Original Caption Released with Image: The ability of a sophisticated radar instrument to image large regions of the world from space, using different frequencies that can penetrate dry sand cover, produced the discovery in this image: a previously unknown branch of an ancient river, buried under thousands of years of windblown sand in a region of the Sahara Desert in North Africa. This area is near the Kufra Oasis in southeast Libya, centered at 23.3 degrees north latitude, 22.9 degrees east longitude. The image was acquired by the Spaceborne Imaging Radar-C/X-band Synthetic Aperture (SIR-C/X-SAR) imaging radar when it flew aboard the space shuttle Endeavour on its 60th orbit on October 4, 1994. This SIR-C image reveals a system of old, now inactive stream valleys, called "paleodrainage systems, Image Credit: NASA/JPL