The Swiss Plateau by Night

Orbit 37229, Frame 0936, 3 June 2002 21:40 GMT

ERS passed over this area in central Europe twice the same day, the 3rd June 2002, once at 12:40 local time on a descending orbit, heading south-southwest, and once again in the night, at 21:40, travelling north-northwest.
The image shows the Three Lakes area of the Swiss Plateau: the Lake of Neuchâtel (the largest), the Lake of Bienne and Lake of Murten, the smallest, all named after the main towns on their shores.

The radar always looks to the right along its track, thus pointing towards west in the late morning and towards east on the night pass. This nighttime pass was rotated 26 degrees so that it can be readily compared with the same area imaged during a daytime pass.

Coordinates:
NE Lat/Long: N 47.09/ E 07.32
NW Lat/Long: N 47.09/ E 06.36
SW Lat/Long: N 46.43/ E 06.36
SE Lat/Long: N 46.43/ E 07.32

Click on the thumbnail image to see details of this widely varied landscape, the towns of Bienne, Murten, Yverdon, and Neuchâtel, the structures built for the Sixth Swiss National Exhibition, as well as explanations on the differences between a nighttime and a daytime radar pass.

A very high resolution image, 1126 x 1141 pixels, 540577 bytes, is also available.

Keywords: ESA European Space Agency - Agence spatiale europeenne, observation de la terre, earth observation, satellite remote sensing, teledetection, geophysique, altimetrie, radar, chimique atmospherique, geophysics, altimetry, radar, atmospheric chemistry