Using Satellite RADAR Imagery to Study the Polar Regions

The Earth's polar regions are ice-covered, dynamic, beautiful, hostile, and vitally important to the global climate. They are vast, remote, and difficult to access. The Polar regions have no sunlight nearly all winter and are shrouded by clouds. The images and data from satellites that orbit the polar regions are important tools used to study these areas. This home page describes some of the interesting facts and features of the Arctic and Antarctic regions and how we observe these regions using satellites. The primary science focus is on sea ice, which is ice formed in the oceans, and how we study it using RADAR or SAR imagery.

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What is SAR, anyway?
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Did you say satellites?
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Cool ice facts -Be in the know!
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Be a scientist and play with THESE WaCkY tOols!
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So how does it work? Wow your pals with these global facts!
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Imaging an entire continent? Can they DO that?
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See the Amazing Ice Bunnies!
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What do we DO with this stuff?
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Neat images from our SAR satellites

The Oceanography Hotlist!
* Mission to Planet Earth
* NASA/JPL Imaging Radar Homepage
* National Snow and Ice Data Center
* ESA Earth Observation Guide
* JPL Physical Oceanography Distributed Active Archive Center
* Alaska SAR facility (ASF)
* Nansen Center
* Radarsat
* New Zealand Inter. Center for Antarctic Info.
* Glaciers!
* NOAA Home Page
* Oceanography-World Wide Web Library
* SeaWifs

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This page was created by Eileen Wexler as a part of a Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship through the California Institute of Technology. Please contact Ben Holt at the Jet Propulsion Lab for further information.