Sydney, Australia
September 18, 2000
Provided by: JPL
Summary authors & editors: Jim Foster
Sydney is Australia's largest city and the site of the 2000 Olympic games, which began on Friday (September 15). This image was taken on April 20, 1994 from the space shuttle Endeavor using the Spaceborne Imaging Radar (C and X band) Synthetic Aperature Radar. The image covers an area of about 20 miles by 23 miles. North is towards the upper left hand corner of the image. The Pacific Ocean is the dark area to the upper right. The downtown portion of Sydney is the bright area at the upper center, and the rounded bay in south Sydney, below and to the right of the downtown area is Botany Bay. To get the color renditions shown here, two different radar bands are used with vertical and horizontal polarizations. The white and yellow colors show urban areas, the blue/greens are suburban and the purple colors show undeveloped or park lands.
Sydney Harbor, with its numerous coves and inlets, is where most of the sailing and rowing competitions will be held, and it's also the site of swimming portion of the triathalon. Several spieces of sharks including Great Whites have been know to visit the harbor. Though there have been sevaral shark attacks in the Sydney area this year, most sharks have now followed their food sources to warmer waters. Just to be on the safe side, however, triathletes will be fitted with electric shark repellant devises. The volleyball competition will be held on Bondi Beach (pronounced BONDeye), which is on the peninsula that separates Sydney Harbor from the Pacific Ocean.
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