Satellite Views

C-Band (wavelength = 5.7 cm). The Radar is an active sensor. It sends a pulse, horizontally polarized, and measures the returning pulse. The returning pulse, interacts with the surface and can either come back in horizontal polarization or vertical. This makes for four images - C-HH, C-HV, L-HH, L-HV (band - sent signal polarization, return signal polarization). Radar signal is most effected by surface roughness. I have attached two jpg images - one is a display of each of the four bands. They are grayscale and contain all the information received by the satellite in this configuration. The second image is the one you saw - a false RGB representation of the same information in the bw pictures. The square "box" in C-HV is silt and mud entering from the Jordan river. There is some noise in the image, which can be seen in the L-HV band (the stripes in the right-hand upper corner of the lake). Don't forget that SAR measures backscattering. Any change in the surface of the sea will show up as a change in the image (waves, different salt concentrations, boat tracks, etc.). Once again - radar does not penetrate the waters of the Dead Sea. In order for SAR to "see" the bottom of a water body, very rigid conditions have to be met. -----Michael Lazar, of the Dead Sea Research Center