Spaceborne and Airborne Radar at Angkor: Introducing New Technology to the Ancient Site

Defining an archaeological context for the temples of Angkor has been a major challenge in the interpretation of the ancient site. The authors’ collaborative research addressed this issue using data acquired with the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s Spaceborne Imaging Radar-C/X-band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SIR-C/X-SAR) in 1994 and the Airborne Synthetic Aperture Radar (AIRSAR) in 1996. The first archaeological use of combined SIR-C and AIRSAR datasets in Southeast Asia, and the ensuing perceptions identified new strategies of innovative research that have fundamentally changed our understanding of the breadth and complexity of the ancient Khmer achievement. The results summarized in this article are both technical and archaeological, ranging from the analysis of polarimetric and interferometric data to the transition from prehistoric habitation to the Hindu-Buddhist cities of Angkor in the 9–13th centuries A.D.