Copernicus Sentinel-1 captured this picture over a part of japanese Borneo, a tropical island in Southeast Asia.
Zoom in or click on on the circles to discover this picture at its full decision.
Borneo, the world’s third largest island, is shared between Brunei, Malaysia and Indonesia. The world pictured right here covers a part of the East Kalimantan province in Indonesia, with the Makassar Strait to the east, a slender passage within the west-central Pacific Ocean.
This radar picture is from 31 March 2025, it’s in false-colour and in ‘twin polarisation’ horizontal and vertical radar pulses. In comparison with a single acquisition, this twin mode gives extra detailed and complementary details about Earth’s floor. Completely different colors symbolize several types of land cowl, similar to yellow for dense vegetation and forests and darkish blue for water.
Right here, the land is dominated by forests, dotted with quite a few small lakes showing as darkish blue spots. Brighter zones counsel built-up areas, primarily positioned alongside the course of the Mahakam River, which runs throughout the picture. The capital of the province, Samarinda, will be seen on the northern financial institution of the river. Radar reflections from the ships stand out like shining jewels at nighttime water of the river, in addition to the ocean.
The Mahakam River followers out right into a labyrinth of distributaries earlier than emptying into the Makassar Strait by a big and complicated delta. The world alternates between agriculture and aquaculture, notably shrimp farming, and in depth wetlands dominated by mangrove ecosystems. Zooming in, aquaculture constructions will be seen in darkish blue.
Various colors of the seawater are attributable to totally different atmospheric fronts and wind situations, with stronger winds on the left within the lighter zone, and calmer situations on the suitable.
Distinct greenish patches seen on the ocean floor, particularly inside the lighter blue space, are ‘rain cells’ – distinct areas of rainfall inside a bigger precipitation system. As we will see within the picture, these cells can vary in measurement, from small, localised showers to bigger, extra in depth rainfall occasions. As rain cells are simple to identify utilizing satellite tv for pc radar, scientists additionally exploit these pictures to watch the climate.
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