The adjacent images show a comparison of the Mt. Everest region (border of Nepal and Tibet). The left image was taken through thick cloud cover with synthetic aperture radar on the space shuttle Endeavor; The right figure is an optical image of the same region taken from Endeavor (Ref). One can see many of the same features in the two photographs (the photographs were taken at different times of the year, so they have different snow covers).
 |
|
The curving and branching features are glaciers. The radar technique used is sensitive to characteristics of the glacier surfaces such as the ice roughness and water content. Thus the glaciers show a variety of colors in the radar image but are a rather featureless gray or white in the optical photograph.