Boston, Massachusetts
Photo ID:P-46388
Novenber 16, 1995
This radar image of the area surrounding Boston, Mass., shows how a spaceborne
radar system distinguishes between densely populated urban areas and nearby
areas that are relatively unsettled. The bright white area at the right center
of the image is downtown Boston. The wide river below and to the left of the
city is the Charles River in Boston's Back Bay neighborhood. The dark green
patch to the right of the Back Bay is Boston Common. A bridge across the
north end of Back Bay connects the cities of Boston and Cambridge. The light
green areas that dominate most of the image are the suburban communities
surrounding Boston. The many ponds that dot the region appear as dark
irregular spots. Many densely populated urban areas show up as red in the
image due to the alignment of streets and buildings to the incoming radar
beam. North is toward the upper left. The image was acquired on October 9,
1994, by the Spaceborne Imaging Radar-C/X-Band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SIR-
C/X-SAR) as it flew aboard the space shuttle Endeavour. This area is centered
at 42.4 degrees north latitude, 71.2 degrees west longitude. The area shown
is approximately 37 km by 18 km (23 miles by 11 miles). Colors are assigned
to different radar frequencies and polarizations as follows: red is L-band
horizontally transmitted, horizontally received; green is L-band horizontally
transmitted, vertically received; blue is C-band horizontally transmitted,
vertically received. SIR-C/X-SAR, a cooperative mission of the German, Italian
and United States space agencies, is part of NASA's Mission to Planet Earth
program.
![[BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS]](BOSTON.GIF)