The T8 RADAR swath, which covered the Huygens landing site, as well as portions of the dark region Belet and a bright region named Adiri, was released onto the PDS last week for public consumption. I have posted JPEG version of this swath at http://pirlwww.lpl.arizona.edu/~perry/RADAR/ in three different sizes for your viewing pleasure: 32 pixels/deg (1.4 km/pixel), 128 pixels/deg. (351 m/pixel), and 256 pixels/deg. (175 m/pixel). Obviously, the ability to resolve features varies across the swath, with coarser resolution near the ends and finer near the middle, as obviously effective resolution varies with distance to Titan and SAR mode (Hi-res or Lo-res).
This swath is dominated by aeolian geologic processes. For example, the dark region Belet, which is seen in the middle of the swath, is covered in longitudinal dunes. These dunes sculpt the landscape, creating stream-lined forms as they diverge around icy hills that poke up above the sandy, hydrocarbon coating. These processes can also be seen at the ends of the swath, in southeastern Senkyo on the western end of the swath, and in western Shangri-la and Antillia Faculae on the eastern end. Several large, bright areas can be seen in this swath. The most prominent of these is Adiri. In RADAR, Adiri is a mix of rough terrain (on its western side), smooth terrain (on its eastern side), and cat-scratch dunes in the middle.
So Enjoy!
VP I was wondering if these Radar swath that we see released are they just Preliminary images?
Will they be further enhanced in the future?
Maybe colored?
The RADAR team has the capability of moderately enhancing the data compared to the first look images that are initially released. For example, they can apply a photometric function that corrects for differences in incidence angle, or look angle, across the strip. Beyond that, much of what can be done uses additional data sets (combining the RADAR data with VIMS and ISS images) or processing the SAR data in different ways (using the central SAR strip as a makeshift altimeter, for example). One can always colorize the data using a color gradient, but the RADAR team has chosen not to do that with their releases.
What I'm really looking forward to is the next update to this image:
http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA08100
There must be several more strips to fill in by now.
Bart
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