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)

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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

Image Addition Date:
1998-04-14