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The bridge over the Paraná, built in the 1970s, connects Corrientes to its sister city, Resistencia, (beyond the left edge of image) on the western bank of the river. Sun glint on the river gives it a silvery glow and emphasizes channel islands in the river, side channels, and meander scars on the floodplain opposite the city, and even reveals the pattern of disturbed flow downstream of the bridge pylons.
Although it lies 500 miles from the sea, Corrientes is a major port city. Barge traffic from Corrientes supplies landlocked Paraguay and Bolivia and interior parts of Brazil. Local manufactures and farm products are sent downstream to Buenos Aires, where the Paraná empties into the Atlantic Ocean through the Rio de la Plata Estuary. Founded in 1588, the city's name is an abbreviated version of the historic one, “San Juan de Vera de las Siete Corrientes” (San Juan de Vera of the Seven Currents), which honored the city’s founder and the complex behavior of the river in that location. The sun glint on the river highlights the different currents.
The old part of the city appears as a zone of smaller, more densely clustered city blocks along the river to the north of a major highway, which runs through Corrientes from the General Belgrano Bridge to the northeast (upper right of image). Larger blocks of the younger cityscape, with more green space, surround these core neighborhoods.
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Solar salt production has increased along the world’s arid coastal regions. Global demand for salt is on the rise, primarily because salt is a basic feedstock to the chemical industry (the largest salt consumer). Commercial solar salt ponds are frequently controversial components of coastal ecosystems. The hypersaline conditions are toxic to preexisting ecosystems in and around the converted land, and valuable coastal wetlands may be impacted by flooding, changing water levels and salinities. However, salt ponds have also been successfully converted to wetlands, and the shallow ponds can support shellfish and bird populations.
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A new ice dam across the Brazo Rico arm of Lago Argentino is visible in this astronaut photograph. The past extent of glaciation in the region is marked by several valleys formerly filled by flowing ice. A particularly striking example of this landscape feature is in the center of the image, where five glacial valleys converge to a central star-shaped outflow valley. Widespread recession of the glaciers in southern Patagonia has occurred over the last 30 years possibly due to warming of the regional climate. Contrary to this trend, Perito Moreno seems to be maintaining equilibrium between ice formation in the mountains and ice loss due to melting and calving into Lago Argentino.
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This image, taken by astronauts aboard the International Space Station, shows Lake Sambhar’s eastern saltworks in detail. Today, they are operated by a joint venture between Hindustan Salts and the Government of Rajasthan. East of the dam is a railroad, built by the British (before India’s independence) that provides access from Sambhar Lake City to the salt works.
More importantly, Sambhar has been designated as a Ramsar site (recognized wetland of international importance) because the wetland is a key wintering area for tens of thousands of flamingos and other birds that migrate from northern Asia. The lake is actually an extensive saline wetland, with water depths fluctuating from just a few centimeters (1 inch) during the dry season to about 3 meters (10 feet) after monsoon season. The specialized algae and bacteria growing in the lake provide striking water colors and support the lake ecology that, in turn, sustains the migrating waterfowl.
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The cities of Rochester, Syracuse, and Ithaca are included in this field-of-view, taken from the International Space Station. These three cities enjoy large seasonal snowpacks, thanks to the influence of the Great Lakes producing lake-effect snowstorms. Despite its reputation for long winters, the region is balmy compared with the glacial climate present when the landscape was carved. At the time of the greatest ice extent, yearly average temperatures over northern North America were several degrees lower than today.
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The island is composed of coral fragments and is surrounded by an active fringing reef. White breakers encircling the island indicate the position of the reef. Astronauts aboard the International Space Station photograph numerous reefs around the world as part of a global mapping and monitoring program. High-resolution images such as this one are used to update geographic maps of reefs and islands, assess the health of reef ecosystems, and calculate bathymetry of the surrounding ocean bottom.
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This astronaut photograph illustrates the Seoul urban area at night. Major roadways and river courses (such as the Han River) are clearly outlined by street lights, while the brightest lights indicate the downtown urban core (center of image) and large industrial complexes. One such complex is located at the far left of the image and occupies an island in the Yellow Sea. Very dark regions in the image are mountains or large bodies of water. Nighttime images have been used extensively in urban climate and urban growth research to map the extent of urban (bright) versus rural (dark) regions.
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Salalah is a city of antiquity, boasting both the ruins of a palace reputed to have belonged to the Queen of Sheba and the resting place of the biblical prophet Job in the nearby Jabal al Qar. Modern Oman is also represented by the Port of Salalah, located approximately 15 km to the southwest of the city. The strategic location of this port has made it one of the major entry points to India, the Middle East, and Africa. The rectangular projection into the Arabian Sea visible in the astronaut photograph is a large shipping container loading/unloading platform.
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Large areas of bare and disturbed soil (brownish gray) that were previously covered with vegetation are visible along the coastline in the near-nadir (top) image. Embayments in the coastline were particularly hard hit, while adjacent headlands were less affected. The oblique (lower) astronaut photograph was acquired 45 seconds after the near-nadir photograph, and captures sunglint illuminating the Indian Ocean and standing water inland (light gray, yellow). Distortion and scale differences in the images are caused by increased obliquity of the view from the International Space Station. Arrows on the photographs indicate several points of comparison between the two images. Standing bodies of seawater may inhibit revegetation of damaged areas and act as sources of salt contamination in soil and groundwater.
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The central lake in this astronaut photograph is one of hundreds in the Iberá swamplands that were formed by South America’s second largest river, the Paraná. Although this great river now lies 120 kilometers to the north of this area today, its channel has swung over a great “inland delta” in the recent geological past.
This and other lakes were captured by the astronaut in the camera’s sunglint region (the area where the Sun reflects directly back toward the camera ) as the International Space Station passed over this remote but vast swampland in northeast Argentina. The glint pattern gives the lakes a slivery appearance, and shows winds ruffling the water surfaces. The lakes in this image lie within side channels of the Paraná that formed when the river flowed through the region from the northeast. The center coordinates of this enhanced image are 28.7°S 58.4°W. The central lake in the image is about 2 km long.
Forest, swamp, and prairie vegetation outline the low topography which consists of lakes, low swells, and depressions. The rounded shape of the topography probably relates to the effects of wind. Evidence from areas both north and south of the swamps suggests that these parts of South America were climatically drier during several periods in the last couple of million years (while North America and Europe were experiencing glaciations). Aridity allows the effects of wind to become pronounced. Wind builds elliptical sand dunes and scours out rounded depressions. Wind also generates waves on lakes that smooth sandy and muddy lake shores.
