This Advanced Along Track Scanning Radiometer (AATSR) image from an overpass of the Indus Valley has been processed to emphasise different terrain types and vegetation coverage in order to demonstrate how well the AATSR instrument can distinguish such features. The image covers an area 1400 kilometres in length and 512 kilometres in width. From top-to-bottom it orients approximately north-east to south-west.

The Indus River can be seen clearly as a thin, dark-blue serpentine structure flowing south to the sea, with high mountain ranges (purple) to the west (right), and the low Punjab to the north-east. Along its course, green vegetation dominates and the tributaries of the Indus Basin can just be detected in the fertile Punjab plain towards the upper right of this image. The Thar Desert stands out as the large are of paler pink, purple and beige shades to the lower right of the image north of the sea. Acknowledgement: RAL/DEFRA/ESA.

Technical Information:
Instruments: Advance Along Track Scanning Radiometer (AATSR)
Date of Acquisition: 12 June 2003
Orbit number: 06701
Instrument features: Full Resolution image (1000-meter resolution)
Band combination:
- Red channel: 1.6 um (histogram equalized)
- Green channel: 0.87 um (histogram equalized)
- Blue channel: 0.56 um (histogram equalized)