View Image Gallery
Showcasing remote-sensing imagery
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Using Sentinel-1A SAR data, ASF DAAC scientists processed data from before and after the 16 September 2015 earthquake to create this InSAR image. Regions with dense fringes mark the areas where most motion occurred.
This ALOS PALSAR interferogram was used to generate a digital elevation model of Death Valley, California. The fringes (full cycle of colors) in the image are changes in interferometric phase and correspond to variations in surface topography. The long spatial baseline of this interferogram causes strong sensitivity to topography changes and yields a dense fringe pattern in steep areas. Interferogram courtesy of Franz Meyer, UAF. © JAXA, METI 2007 
Motion of the Kennicott Glacier in Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, Alaska, is revealed by this ALOS PALSAR interferogram. Motion of glaciers between repeat passes of a satellite causes decorrelation of the phase signal returned from the glacier ice. This decorrelation, or loss of coherence, can be used by scientists to map the terminus of the glacier and study how it changes through time. Image credit: Franz Meyer, UAF. © JAXA, METI 2007
Water-level changes over swamp forest in southeastern Louisiana are revealed in this interferogram, created using ALOS PALSAR data acquisitions of January 29 and March 16, 2007. Each interferogram fringe (a full cycle of colors) represents a water-level change of about 13 cm. The interferogram suggests that water-level changes are dynamic, spatially heterogeneous, and disconnected by structures and barriers. Interferogram courtesy of Zhong Lu, USGS. © JAXA, METI 2007 
Uplift and subsidence associated with a June 2007 earthquake swarm on Kilauea Volcano are depicted in this ALOS PALSAR interferogram. Kilauea Volcano, located on the southeast portion of the island of Hawai'i, has been erupting continuously since 1983. Interferogram courtesy of Zhong Lu, USGS
The dynamic interaction of wind and local topography produce a scouring of rocky hills in southwestern Namibia in this ALOS Advanced Visible and Near-Infrared Radiometer type 2 (AVNIR-2) image. This sand-free region, with its own local albedo, stands as a beautiful anomaly in the 1,000-mile-long Namib Desert. © JAXA, 2007.
Prevailing water currents sculpt underwater dunes of ooids south of Eleuthera, Bahamas, in this ALOS AVNIR-2 image. The ooids, small grain-like calcium carbonate spheres, form when a fragment of sediment acts as a seed that accumulates layers of calcite from the supersaturated water. © JAXA, 2007.
Four images of Alaska's Black River emptying into the Bering Sea comprise this aerial mosaic image. The original images, taken in July 1980 in the Alaska High-Altitude Aerial Photography (AHAP) program, are available from ASF's GeoData Center. The color infrared imagery shows the high sediment content in the water as a lighter shade of blue. 
Red highlights areas of Mississippi Delta vegetation in this false-color, ALOS AVNIR-2 image. Blue indicates the Gulf of Mexico. The image reveals the dendritic structure of the delta from sediment deposited by the soil-lade waters of America's mightiest river. The region has undergone dramatic changes from dredging and other human activities, coastal erosion, and storm damage. © JAXA, 2009.
Northwest Passage sea ice contrasts with the coast of Baffin Island, Canada, in this ALOS-PALSAR image taken 8 March 2011. © JAXA, METI 2011
The structure and drainage patterns of this Okmok Island volcano in the Aleutians were captured in this ALOS-Phased Array L-band SAR (PALSAR) image, collected on 13 October 2010. The wind shadow caused by the volcano is revealed in the different backscatter values of the water surrounding the island. © JAXA / METI 2010
This image is a model of the southern Kenai Peninsula based on Light Detection and Ranging (LIDAR) data for the region. LIDAR is becoming an important tool for modeling the Earth's topography. A pulsed laser is flown over a region, and the time between the sent pulse and the return pulse signals the topography. In this image, the height of the hills was doubled to facilitate the study of erosion and coastal flooding. The model was created by Rick Guritz of ASF. © 2010, ASF
Dipole eddies swirl in the vicinity of the Bering Sea's Sarichef Strait, between Hall and St. Matthew Islands, in this European Remote-Sensing Satellite-1 (ERS-1) image acquired on 15 February 1992. The eddies are tidal generated and were observed only when frazil (slush-like ice in a first stage of sea-ice formation) and grease ice (a thin layer of ice in a further stage of sea-ice formation) acted as tracers. © ESA, 1992
Mangroves, marshes, and open water along the coastline of Florida's Everglades National Park are indicated by false colors. Acquired by UAVSAR on 15 June 2009, the polarimetric SAR data was processed to depict the physical structure of targets. The change of color that extends in from the coastline, which indicates an alteration in mangrove structure, is likely attributable to hurricane damage from October 2005. © NASA, 2009
A colorized image created with UAVSAR data reveals the Helheim Glacier in southeastern Greenland. The glacier flows from the Greenland ice sheet, through a narrow rift in the coastal mountain range, into a fjord. Where the water is deep enough to cause the end of the glacier to float, the front becomes brittle and it breaks into numerous icebergs. In this image, the fjord is on the right, packed with icebergs from the retreating glacier. © NASA, 2009Visit Ground Station
ASF Satellite-Tracking Ground Station
- Three antennas, including a new 11-meter system (below left), installed September 2013.
- Prime polar location for high-inclination spacecraft.
- Downlink, uplink, and two-way tracking capabilities.
Get SAR Data
Synthetic aperture radar imagery
Use the Get Started Guide to learn how to access and use Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) data for a wide range of research.
URSA is a powerful search-and-order tool for the ASF Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) DAAC data pool.
Non-DAAC URSA is a powerful search-and-order tool for non-DAAC imagery such as AVNIR and PRISM.
Follow Data Recipes
Step-by-step instructions
- How to radiometrically terrain correct (RTC) Sentinel-1 synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data
- How to view RTC images in a GIS environment
- How to map inundation with spaceborne L-band synthetic aperture radar (SAR)
Chapman, Guritz 2016; RTC: ASF 2015; Includes Material © JAXA/METI 2007.
ASF DAAC
The Alaska Satellite Facility, which specializes in synthetic aperture radar, is one of 12 theme-based NASA Earth-science data centers in the nation known as Distributed Active Archive Centers.
