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The GLI image above was captured on March 20, 2003, covering the central part of the South America continent. The red arrow indicates the location of Buenos Aires, Argentina, located on a righthand side of the La Plata river (Rio de la Plata.) Green, green/brown, white and black colored areas indicate plantations, agriculture, clouds and water surfaces, respectively.

The dark colored area in the central part of the image indicated by a red box is the Pantanal wetlands, which spreads onto Brazil, Bolivia and Paraguay. The Pantanal wetlands, which have an area comparable to the Japanese mainland, is famous for its rich and diverse flora and fauna. March is the transition period from wet to dry season, and the wet areas have already started to shrink.

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The second image shows the Pantanal wetlands as seen by satellite radar. It is a mosaic image, composed from some 70 SAR scenes acquired between January 29 and February 7, 1997, by the JERS-1 Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) instrument. As the radar signals penetrate clouds and haze, SAR data can provide clear views of the ground surface also during any season of the year. Dark areas in the mosaic image are open water, various tones of gray show different levels of vegetation growth, while bright areas indicate flooded vegetation.

A mid-resolution optical sensor such as GLI is can provide frequent information about vegetation spectral characteristics over wide areas, while a microwave sensor, such as JERS-1 SAR, provides structural information about the terrain and land cove. The instruments are thus complementary and when used in combination, they can provide new information about natural phenomena and temporal environmental change on the Earth.

» Pantanal SAR mosaic: JERS-1 Global Rain Forest Mapping Project (GFM) by NASDA and JPL

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