COLLECTION NAME:
NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory Collection
Record
Title:
NSCAT global image
Creator:
NASA/JPL-Caltech
Description:
This is a global image of land surfaces as seen by the NASA Scatterometer (NSCAT) onboard Japan's Advanced Earth Observing Satellite. The scatterometer's primary function is to study winds over the oceans, but scientists have devised a way of studying changes in the instrument's radar backscatter to look at land surfaces as well. The scatterometer's radar is sensitive to conditions on the Earth's surface. The brightest regions in this image are glacial ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica. Tropical rainforests along the equator in South America, Africa and Southeast Asia are relatively bright due to their vegetation and soil moisture. Very dry, sandy deserts show up as black in this image. Some examples are the Empty Quarter in Saudia Arabia, the Gobi Desert in Western China and the Sahara Desert in North Africa. The light area just below the wide, dark band in Africa is known as the Sahel, a region that lightens and darkens with the changing seasons and drought conditions in Africa. The seasonal radar response of the Sahel is thought to be a sensitive indicator of desertification due to global warming and climate change. NSCAT was launched from Japan on August 16, 1996. The mission represents the first major collaboration between the two nations in Earth remote-sensing. JPL developed, built and manages the NSCAT instrument for NASA's Office of Mission to Planet Earth. #####
Date:
11/18/96
Identifier:
P-47951
MediaType:
Image
Year:
1996
Contributor:
JPL Archives
What:
Earth
Where:
Greenland
Where:
China
Where:
Japan
Where:
Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)
