This image shows the extent of deforestation in the state of Rondonia,Brazil. Acquired by the Advance Spaceborne Thermal Emission andReflection Radiometer (ASTER) on August 24, 2000, the false-color imagecombines near-infrared, red, and green light. Tropical rainforest appearsbright red, while pale red and brown areas represent cleared land. Black and grayareas have probably been recently burned. The Jiparaná River appears blue.
With a maximum spatial resolution of 15 meters, ASTER does not produce imagery asdetailed as the IKONOS satellite, which has a maximum resolution of one meter. Comparethe above image with IKONOS datafrom the same area. The somewhat lower resolution ASTER data is not as detailed,but provides a better overview, and ASTER can acquire data over a particular region more often than IKONOS.Other satellite instruments, such as the Sea-viewing Wide Field-of-View Sensor(SeaWiFS), give even broader and more frequent coverage, as shown by thistrue-color image of Rondonia.
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Image courtesy NASA/GSFC/METI/ERSDAC/JAROS, and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team
