The history of sea islands in the Altamaha River delta on
the coast of Georgia is revealed in this image produced from data
acquired by the Airborne Synthetic Aperture Radar (AIRSAR),
developed and operated by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory,
Pasadena, Calif. The outlines of long-lost plantation rice
fields, canals, dikes and other inlets are clearly visible, as
are Rhett’s and Butler’s islands, names made famous by novelist
Margaret Mitchell in “Gone with the Wind.”

The image is available at http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/pictures/airsar .

The ability of imaging radar to detect vegetation canopy
density, hydrological features and other topographic
characteristics make it a very useful tool in landscape
archaeology. More information about AIRSAR is available at
http://airsar.jpl.nasa.gov . AIRSAR is part of NASA’s Earth
Enterprise program. JPL is managed by the California Institute
of Technology in Pasadena.