Cotopaxi and Antisana Volcanos

Ecuador’s northern highlands are pictured in this image from Envisat.

Near the top left of the image, the southern outskirts of Ecuador’s capital, Quito, appear as white dots. Quito is one of the highest capital cities in the world, at an elevation of 2850 m above sea level.

This area is part of the northern zone of the Andean Volcanic Belt. The belt was formed as a result of the Nazca and Antarctic tectonic plates moving under the South American plate – a geological process called ‘subduction’.

Near the bottom-left corner is the Cotopaxi stratovolcano. It is the second highest summit in the country at about 5900 m and one of Ecuador’s most active volcanoes, erupting more than 50 times since the early 1700s.

On the center-right side of the image is the Antisana volcano.

What look like white glaciers at the peaks of these mountains are actually artifacts of the radar echo – the surfaces of the summits are more or less directly facing the satellite, so the radar signal reflects straight back to the antenna.

This image was created by combining three Envisat radar passes from 4 June 2006, 20 January 2008 and 24 January 2010 over the same area.

Colors represent changes in the land’s surface between the three radar scans that make up this composite image. Some of the changes are distinct, such as the patchwork showing changes in agricultural plots near the top left. From Antisana to the west, the area is generally colorful, indicating ground movement.

East of Antisana, however, the area is less colorful, and therefore more stable.

This image is featured on the Earth from Space video program.

Image credit: ESA

Napo River in Ecuador and Peru

On March 17, 2013, NASA’s Uninhabited Aerial Vehicle Synthetic Aperture Radar (UAVSAR) acquired synthetic aperture radar data over the Napo River in Ecuador and Peru. The image colors indicate the likelihood of inundation (flooding) beneath the forest canopy, which is difficult to determine using traditional optical sensors. Red and yellow shades indicate a high likelihood of standing water with emergent vegetation, blue and green shades are areas less likely to be inundated, and black indicates the open water areas of the Napo River. These data, which have already been transmitted to a field team working along the Napo River, will be used to guide field measurements during a second observation by UAVSAR on March 31, 2013. The image is a 8.7-mile-wide by 5.6-mile-long (14-kilometer-wide by 9-kilometer-long) segment of an image measuring more than 124 miles (200 kilometers) long. North is toward the upper right. The resolution is 20 feet (6 meters). UAVSAR data like these are helping scientists assess the effectiveness of using synthetic aperture radar data to study the inundation dynamics of this and similar rivers around the world.

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Note: For more information, see NASA Flies Radar South on Wide-Ranging Expedition; also, PIA16942: NASA Sends Unmanned Aircraft To Study Volcanoes and Wetlands.