Shallow Sand Layers Research Articles

A comparative analysis of dyke lineaments mapped from Shuttle Imaging Radar and Large Format Camera photography in hyperarid areas of the Eastern Desert, Egypt, and Red Sea Hills, Sudan

Abstract The Red Sea Hills (Sudan) and Eastern Desert (Egypt) have been selected, as areas with hyperarid climate, for a comparative study of SIR-B radar imagery and Large Format Camera (LFC) spaceborne photography. Some areas with extensive sand sheets in which dykes and dyke swarms were partially outcropping were studied in detail and a dyke lineament analysis was made using the different remote sensing data sets. Particularly from the LFC photos much detail could be obtained through stereo analysis. It appeared that the radar images revealed some information on the dyke rocks covered by a shallow sand layer, otherwise invisible on Landsat and LFC images. This suggests some microwave penetration capability, although results were not conclusive. The differences between dyke lineament interpretation from radar images and LFC photos seem not so much influenced by the penetration capability of microwaves, but more by the influence of radar look direction.