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The Island of Tasmania seen with a Radar satellite eye.
The image is a combination of three acquisitions, 19th July
(red) 21st April (green) and 6th January (blue) of the year
2003. It outlines sharply the complex coastline where as the
colour of the island is for a large part grey, indicating the
forested wilderness. The reddish-yellowing area however is the
agriculture zone with colour points revealing large crop fields.
Cities are brightly marked but restricted to Launceston in the
centre and Hobart in the southeast and the cities along the
northern coast. In the central south the proterozoic rock
formation of the Prince of Wales Range form a huge eye: the
Lakes of Pedder and Gordon. The colourfull east coast is merely
the effect of strong winds especially on 6th January, roughening
at that date also all the lakes on the island. In addition due
the effect of the steep looking of the radar instrument the
contrast is relatively enhanced in this section of the image, as
winds are channeled by the valleys and blown out into the sea.
Technical information
Each of the 3 data sets used to produce this multitemporal
image has been acquired by the ASAR (radar) in wide swath mode
onboard Envisat in 2003 at about 23.22 UTC, or 09.22 Tasmanian
time. The pixel size is 200m. |
