This is radar image of the New York city metropolitan area. The island of

Manhattan appears in the center of the image. The green-colored rectangle on

Manhattan is Central Park. This image was acquired by the Spaceborne Imaging

Radar-C/X-band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SIR-C/ X-SAR) aboard the space

shuttle Endeavour on October 10, 1994. North is toward the upper right. The

area shown is 75.0 kilometers by 48.8 kilometers (46.5 miles by 30.2 miles).

The image is centered at 40.7 degrees north latitude and 73.8 degrees west

longitude. In general, light blue areas correspond to dense urban

development, green areas to moderately vegetated zones and black areas to

bodies of water. The Hudson River is the black strip that runs from the left

edge to the upper right corner of the image. It separates New Jersey, in the

upper left of the image, from New York. The Atlantic Ocean is at the bottom

of the image where two barrier islands along the southern shore of Long

Island are also visible. John F. Kennedy International Airport is visible

above these islands. Long Island Sound, separating Long Island from

Connecticut, is the dark area right of the center of the image. Many bridges

are visible in the image, including the Verrazano Narrows, George Washington

and Brooklyn bridges. The radar illumination is from the left of the image;

this causes some urban zones to appear red because the streets are at a

perpendicular angle to the radar pulse. The colors in this image were

obtained using the following radar channels: red represents the L-band

(horizontally transmitted and received); green represents the L-band

(horizontally transmitted, vertically received); blue represents the C-band

(horizontally transmitted, vertically received). Radar images like this one

could be used as a tool for city planners and resource managers to map and

monitor land use patterns. The radar imaging systems can clearly detect the

variety of landscapes in the area, as well as the density of urban

development.

P-45621 May 11, 1995

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bruce.chapman@jpl.nasa.gov