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A single radar image is usually displayed as a grey scale image, such as the one shown above. The intensity of each pixel represents the proportion of microwave backscattered from that area on the ground which depends on a variety of factors: types, sizes, shapes and orientations of the scatterers in the target area; moisture content of the target area; frequency and polarisation of the radar pulses; as well as the incident angles of the radar beam. The pixel intensity values are often converted to a physical quantity called the backscattering coefficient or normalised radar crosssection measured in decibel (dB) units with values ranging from +5 dB for very bright objects to -40 dB for very dark surfaces.
A ship (bright target near the bottom left corner) is seen discharging oil into the sea in this ERS SAR image.
Trees and other vegetations are usually moderately rough on the wavelength scale. Hence, they appear as moderately bright features in the image. The tropical rain forests have a characteristic backscatter coefficient of between -6 and -7 dB, which is spatially homogeneous and remains stable in time. For this reason, the tropical rainforests have been used as calibrating targets in performing radiometric calibration of SAR images. Very bright targets may appear in the image due to the corner-reflector or doublebounce effect where the radar pulse bounces off the horizontal ground (or the sea) towards the target, and then reflected from one vertical surface of the target back to the sensor. Examples of such targets are ships on the sea, high-rise buildings and regular metallic objects such as cargo containers. Built-up areas and many man-made features usually appear as bright patches in a radar image due to the corner reflector effect.
Corner Reflection: When two smooth surfaces form a right angle facing the radar beam, the beam bounces twice off the surfaces and most of the radar energy is reflected back to the radar sensor.
This SAR image shows an area of the sea near a busy port. Many ships can be seen as bright spots in this image due to corner reflection. The sea is calm, and hence the ships can be easily detected against the dark background.
The brightness of areas covered by bare soil may vary from very dark to very bright depending on its roughness and moisture content. Typically, rough soil appears bright in the image. For similar soil roughness, the surface with a higher moisture content will appear brighter.
Dry Soil: Some of the incident radar energy is able to penetrate into the soil surface, resulting in less backscattered intensity.
Wet Soil: The large difference in electrical properties between water and air results in higher backscattered radar intensity.
Flooded Soil: Radar is specularly reflected off the water surface, resulting in low backscattered intensity. The flooded area appears dark in the SAR image.
This image is an example of a multitemporal colour composite SAR image. The area shown is part of the rice growing areas in the Mekong River delta, Vietnam, near the
towns of Soc Trang and Phung Hiep. Three SAR images acquired by the ERS satellite during 5 May, 9 June and 14 July in 1996 are assigned to the red, green and blue channels respectively for display. The colourful areas are the rice growing areas, where the landcovers change rapidly during the rice season. The greyish linear features are the more permanent trees lining the canals. The grey patch near the bottom of the image is wetland forest. The two towns appear as bright white spots in this image. An area of depression flooded with water during this season is visible as a dark region.