Los Angeles Basin
Photo ID: P-44719
October 5, 1994
This is a radar image of Los Angeles, California, taken on October 2, 1994.
Visible in the image are Long Beach Harbor at the bottom right (south corner
of the image), Los Angeles International Airport at the bottom center, with
Santa Monica just to the left of it and the Hollywood Hills to the left of
Santa Monica. Also visible in the image are the freeway systems of Los
Angeles, which appear as dark lines. The San Gabriel Mountains (center top)
and the communities of San Fernando Valley, Simi Valley and Palmdale can be
seen on the left-hand side. This image was acquired by the Spaceborne
Imaging Radar-C and X-band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SIR-C/X-SAR) aboard the
space shuttle Endeavour on its 24th orbit. The image is centered at 34
degrees north latitude, 118 degrees west longitude. The area shown is
approximately 100 kilometers by 52 kilometers (62 miles by 32 miles). This
single- frequency SIR-C image was obtained by the L-band (24 cm) radar
channel, horizontally transmitted and received. Portions of the Pacific
Ocean visible in this image appear very dark as do freeways and other flat
surfaces such as the airport runways. Mountains in the image are dark grey,
with brighter patches on the mountain slopes, which face in the direction of
the radar illumination (from the top of the image). Suburban areas, with the
low-density housing and tree-lined streets that are typical of Los Angeles,
appear as lighter grey. Areas with high-rise buildings, such as downtown Los
Angeles, appear in very bright white, showing a higher density of housing
and streets which run parallel to the radar flight track. Scientists hope to
use radar image data from SIR-C/X-SAR to map fire scars in areas prone to
brush fires, such as Los Angeles. In this image, the Altadena fire area is
visible in the top center of the image as a patch of mountainous terrain
which is slightly darker than the nearby mountains. Using all the radar
frequency and polarization images provided by SIR-C/X-SAR, scientists will
be able to discern these areas even more clearly.
![[LOS ANGELES BASIN, CALIFORNIA]](LABASIN.GIF)