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No, you wouldn't see these ocean features quite this way if you looked out of an airplane or satellite. The reason that the radar sensor on board RADARSAT 'sees' them this way starts with the atmospheric conditions at this time over this area. An intense low pressure system was located where the swirling 'eye' is shown. To the north was a region of convective instability and to the south, a series of atmospheric gravity waves. These atmospheric phenomena 'imprinted' themselves on the ocean surface by the local surface wind speed altering the roughness of the water surface. It is to the surface roughness that the radar reacted, recording more or less radar backscatter, which in this image is indicated by brighter or darker regions respectively. The sea ice seen off the coast, also has a strong relationship to the weather conditions. Such floating ice would be more obvious to an aerial observer.

Question: Do wind conditions also affect radar backscatter on land?

About this Image

Location: Labrador Sea - Labrador NTS map(s): 3, 13, 14 Location Map: See a detailed map (1:1M) of the region Image Date: March 30, 1997 at 2130h Satellites/Sensors: RADARSAT SCW Resolution: 365 m pixels Image Area: 180 x 375 km Image Features: Sea ice, ice conditions, low pressure system, atmospheric gravity waves, convective instability, radar backscatter, surface wind, ocean surface roughness, Coriolis force Related Tour Images: Toronto, Ontario; Mackenzie Delta, Northwest Territories Related Glossary Terms: These terms from the CCRS Glossary may help you to understand this image and its interpretation: RADARSAT, backscatter, diffuse reflection, specular reflection, SAR Related Tutorial Sections: These sections of the "Fundamentals of Remote Sensing" tutorial by CCRS will help you to better understand this image and its interpretation: 3.2   3.5   3.6   3.9   5.9.1 Image Credits: Received and analyzed by the Canada Centre for Remote Sensing Pre-processed by RADARSAT International Inc. Source image © Canadian Space Agency, 1997

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