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Sydney - New South Wales, Australia

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Location of Sydney,
New South Wales
© Geoscience Australia

The city of Sydney is located on Australia’s south-eastern coast extending to the Blue Mountains in the west. These images were acquired from the Landsat 5 Thematic Mapper sensor. True and false colour images for both a recent (2011), and an older (1988) scene are available below in high resolution JPEG format.

For acquisition of full resolution files see the Earth Observation Catalogue, or contact earth.observation@ga.gov.au

• Sydney true colour before and after
• 1988 Sydney true colour
• 2011 Sydney true colour
• 1988 Sydney false colour
• 2011 Sydney false colour

In this true colour swipe comparison, colours appear as close as they would naturally to the human eye. Urban areas appear grey to white, trees and grasslands as shades of green and yellow, and water bodies as dark blue to black. The urban sprawl effect is clearly visible with the growth of the western suburbs over the last 23 years. Large business centres can be seen appearing in Ingleburn, Minto and around Prospect Reservoir including Wetherill Park and Huntingwood. Also quite noticeable is the construction of the North-South runaway of Sydney Airport, extending into Botany Bay.

	1988 Sydney true colour Landsat 5 TM satellite image Red, green, and blue hues are representing TM band’s 3 (visible red), 2 (visible green) and 1 (visible blue) respectively Image taken on 18 February 1988 25m Resolution Download high resolution image [JPEG 3.86MB] © Geoscience Australia
	2011 Sydney true colour Landsat 5 TM satellite image Red, green, and blue hues are representing TM band’s 3 (visible red), 2 (visible green) and 1 (visible blue) respectively Image taken on 1 February 2011 25m Resolution Download high resolution image [JPEG 4.20MB] © Geoscience Australia
	1988 Sydney false colour Landsat 5 TM satellite image Red, green, and blue hues are representing TM band’s 7 (Mid-infrared), 4 (Near infrared) and 1 (visible blue) respectively Image taken on 18 February 1988 25m Resolution In these false colour images, urban areas appear as shades of cyan and purple, dry vegetation and soil as pink to red, and forest and irrigated vegetation as shades of green. Parklands and ovals appear as bright green. Download high resolution image [JPEG 4.54MB] © Geoscience Australia
	2011 Sydney false colour Landsat 5 TM satellite image Red, green, and blue hues are representing TM band’s 7 (Mid-infrared), 4 (Near infrared) and 1 (visible blue) respectively Image taken on 1 February 2011 25m Resolution Download high resolution image [JPEG 4.43MB] © Geoscience Australia

Topic contact: earth.observation@ga.gov.au Last updated: October 27, 2011