| Abstract | The Canada Centre for Remote Sensing airborne Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) acquired an image from the Azraq area in Eastern Jordan in Dec. 1993 to test the potential of the sensor in managing natural
resources in arid environments. The resulting image was processed to simulate the speckle and the resolution of RADARSAT-1 STANDARD and FINE modes. Comparisons between the high resolution airborne SAR image and the simulations are used to examine
the potential of RADARSAT-1 SAR for land use and vegetation, land form, rock units and drainage. Results shows that the FINE mode simulation has a good spatial resolution but has poor contrast due to speckle masking. The STANDARD mode simulation,
although having a lower resolution, shows detailed surface features and has a good dynamic range. |