Earth Sciences and Image Analysis Photographic Highlights

ISS014 Earth Sciences and Image Analysis Photographic Highlights

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ISS014-E-16597 Isles of Scilly, UK: The Isles of Scilly, an archipelago of approximately 150 islands, are located some 44 kilometers southwest of the westernmost point of England (Land’s End). The islands are an eroded remnant of granite rock that intruded into the Earth’s crust from deeper underground. They have been inhabited for over 4,000 years, and historical and geological evidence on the Isles indicates that many of the islands were larger and/or connected in the recent past. Local subsidence (sinking) or rising sea level—or both—made the connections among the islands possible. Even today, it is possible to walk between certain islands during low tides.
This astronaut photograph illustrates the geographic configuration of the archipelago and its effect on ocean wave patterns. Long, linear swells oriented northeast-southwest and moving to the southeast (from image upper left to lower right) are diffracted (bent) as they approach the coastlines and small shoals of the Isles. The wave diffraction forms complex interacting surface patterns that are most clearly visible southwest of St. Mary’s island (image left). The dominant ocean wave pattern resumes to the southeast of St. Mary’s, but with an additional northwest-southeast pattern superimposed, possibly due to winds originating in the English channel to the east (not shown). Suspended, tan-colored sediments visible within and around the archipelago come from wave erosion of the granite that forms the islands and from remobilization of beach sands. Bright white areas in the photograph are waves breaking on shoals.

The Isles have been designated a United Kingdom Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty due to their unique landscape, ecology, and historical significance. The potential effect of rising sea level on the Isles is a primary concern for both long-term ecosystem health and human habitability.

ISS014-E-17346 Venice, Italy: A space-based perspective of the city of Venice quickly reveals different development and land uses in the region; the major islands in the lagoon surrounding Venice—Laguna Veneta—look different from one another. The island of Venice itself, a dense urban landscape, appears almost uniformly covered with red-tiled roofs. By contrast, port facilities and the train station at the west end of the island appear in shades of gray. The islands of Giudecca and Murano (famous for glassware) are almost as densely built up as Venice, but the whole walled island of San Michele, used as a cemetery since Napoleon’s occupation, is covered with trees and tombs. Lido di Venezia, which separates the lagoon from the Adriatic Sea, has more “green space” than Venice, as do the islands to Venice’s east.
Though Venice’s population is fewer than 70,000 residents and declining, as many as 12 million people visit the city every year. Many arrive from the mainland via the bridge at the train station. Many also arrive by boats; boat wakes can be seen as white flashes in many parts of the image. A prominent visual feature of the Venice metropolitan area is the S-bend of the Grand Canal. The famous Rialto Bridge is big enough to appear as a white break in the canal in this astronaut photograph. St. Mark’s Square, where St. Mark’s Church and the Doge’s Palace are located, are also visible at the east end of the canal.

ISS014-E-15258 Kwangju, South Korea: Kwangju (or Gwangju) Metropolitan City is the fifth largest urban area in South Korea. With a population of 1.4 million people, it is a major economic and cultural center for the southern portion of the country. The city is located in a geographic basin with high mountains to the east—the mountain of Mudeungsan has a peak elevation of 1,140 meters (3,740 feet)—and more open plains to the west.
The most notable feature in this astronaut photograph is an interesting blue cast to the urbanized regions. Digital astronaut photographs capture the same red, green, and blue wavelengths of reflected light that human eyes are sensitive to (known as a “true-color” image), and urban areas typically appear in tones of grey in such images. The distinctive blue-grey color of the Kwangju metropolitan area is the result of numerous blue rooftops, present on both small residential buildings (not visible at the image resolution) and large industrial buildings such as those located at image center and image right. High-resolution imagery of the rooftops (not shown) suggests that the blue color is the result of painting rather than an intrinsic characteristic of the building material.

Gwangju is perhaps best known to the West as the location of the Gwangju Massacre of May 1980, in which civilian demonstrators were killed by government forces during a period of military rule in South Korea. The event is commonly described as the driving force behind the country’s democratic reforms, and it has led to identification of the city within South Korea as “the shrine of Korean democracy.”

ISS014-E-15732 Salt Ponds, Botswana: This detailed astronaut photograph shows the salt ponds of one of Africa’s major producers of soda ash (sodium carbonate) and salt. Soda ash is used for making glass, in metallurgy, in the detergent industry, and in chemical manufacture. The image shows a small part of the great salt flats of central Botswana known as the Makgadikgadi Salt Pans. The soda ash and salt are mainly exported (since 1989) to countries in southern and central Africa. Salt water from just beneath the pan floor is evaporated to produce the soda ash and salt—a process for which the semiarid climate of Botswana is ideal. Red, salt-loving algae in the ponds indicate that the salinity of the evaporating water is medium to high.
The salt pans of Botswana—an easily recognizable visual feature for astronauts aboard the ISS—lie at the low point of a vast, shallow continental basin. Rivers draining from as far away as central Angola, more than 1000 kilometers (621 miles) away, supply water to the pans. During several wet climatic phases in the recent geological past, the pans were filled with water for thousands of years, only to dry out when climates fluctuated to drier conditions. During dry phases, water only reaches the pans underground. This underground, salty water supports the ash and salt industry. During wet phases, when open water exists, waves build up beach ridges. One of these ridges crosses the lower part of the view.

Additional astronaut imagery shows another prominent set of salt ponds, near the Dead Sea.

ISS014-E-17999 Springtime Comes to the Niagara River:
(image is paired with/compared to image ISS015-E-5624)

What a difference a month makes! These two images of the Niagara River draining Lake Erie (bottom) into Lake Ontario (top) were acquired about a month apart (March 21 and April 29, 2007, respectively) from the International Space Station. The pair documents the breakup of the Lake Erie ice pack, the unofficial signature of spring for residents of Buffalo and Niagara Falls. In March, the eastern end of Lake Erie is clogged with ice that is pushed against the shoreline by the prevailing westerly wind. The ice collects in Lake Erie, and the Lake Erie-Niagara River Ice Boom prevents it from flowing down the Niagara River, which is the international boundary between the Canadian Province of Ontario, and New York State.

The 2,680-meter (8,800-foot) boom is deployed each December. Operational since 1964, the boom serves several functions: it protects the water intakes for the Niagara River power plants, and it minimizes ice runs (large blocks of ice flowing downstream as ice breaks up in the spring) and blockages that can create damage and flooding along the river. At the height of winter, the thickness of the ice at the Buffalo harbor can reach 3.5 meters (12 feet). The removal of the ice boom, usually in early April, is now marked by local celebrations. This year the boom was removed in mid-April, a bit later than usual. A webcam allows remote viewers to monitor ice pack at the boom.

During their missions, astronauts track the changing seasons using such indicators as the springtime melting of ice packs in high-latitude oceans and lakes. Over the next two years, the space station astronauts will make these types of observations to support International Polar Year (IPY) investigations. Scientists interested in requesting high-latitude imagery from the space station for IPY science should visit the Johnson Space Center Gateway to Astronaut Photography of the Earth International Polar Year Website.

ISS014-E-14618 Maracaibo City and Oil Slick, Venezuela: This astronaut photograph depicts the narrow (6-kilometer-wide) strait between Lake Maracaibo to the south and the Gulf of Venezuela to the north. This brackish lake in northern Venezuela is the largest in South America. The lake and its small basin sit on top of a vast reservoir of buried oil deposits, first tapped in 1914. Venezuela is now the world’s fifth largest oil producer. The narrow strait has been deepened to allow ocean-going vessels access to the lake for oil transport.
Shipping is one of the main sources of pollution in the lake; pollution enters the lake when when ships dump ballast and other waste. An oil slick, likely related to bilge pumping, can be seen as a bright streak northeast of El Triunfo in this image from February 23, 2007. Other sources of pollution to the lake include underwater oil pipeline leakage, untreated municipal and industrial waste from coastal cities, and runoff of chemicals from surrounding farm land. Deepening the narrow channel for shipping has also allowed saltwater intrusion into the lake, negatively affecting lake life.

Since the discovery of oil, cities like Maracaibo have sprung up along the northwestern coastline of the lake. With satellite cities such as San Luis and El Triunfo (visible in this view), greater Maracaibo has a population of about 2.5 million. Just outside the lower margin of the picture, a major bridge spans the narrows pictured here, connecting cities such as Altagracia (top right) to Maracaibo.
Related images
South-looking image of the entire lake in 1985
Oil slicks on Lake Maracaibo in 2003
Duckweed infestation on Lake Maracaibo during 2004 (astronaut photo)
Lake-wide view of 2004 duckweed invasion (satellite image)

ISS014-E-7578 Nardo Ring, Italy: The Nardò Ring is a striking visual feature from space, and astronauts have photographed it several times. The Ring is a race car test track; it is 12.5 kilometers long and steeply banked to reduce the amount of active steering needed by drivers. Although it is a perfect circle, it appears oval in this photograph. This distortion is because the astronaut’s viewing angle was 35 degrees, looking back along the orbit track to the southwest from the International Space Station’s window.
The Nardò Ring lies in a remote area on the heel of Italy’s “boot,” 50 kilometers east of the naval port of Taranto. The small coastal town of Villaggio Boncore—visible as a light grey area of linear streets at the bottom center of the image—lies just to the south, but the Ring is named after the bigger urban center of Nardò, 22 kilometers to the southeast (not shown). The Ring encompasses a number of active (green) and fallow (brown to dark brown) agricultural fields. In this zone of intensive agriculture, farmers gain access to their fields through the Ring via a series of underpasses. Winding features within the southern section of the Ring appear to be smaller, unused race tracks.

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This service is provided by the International Space Station program and the JSC Astromaterials Research & Exploration Science Directorate.

Recommended Citation: Image Science and Analysis Laboratory, NASA-Johnson Space Center. "The Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth." .

NASA Responsible Official: Susan Runco

Curator: jsc-earthweb@mail.nasa.gov

Contributors: Earth Sciences Web Team

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center

International Space Station National Laboratory

Last Update:

Server: 1

ISS014-E-16597	Isles of Scilly, UK: The Isles of Scilly, an archipelago of approximately 150 islands, are located some 44 kilometers southwest of the westernmost point of England (Land’s End). The islands are an eroded remnant of granite rock that intruded into the Earth’s crust from deeper underground. They have been inhabited for over 4,000 years, and historical and geological evidence on the Isles indicates that many of the islands were larger and/or connected in the recent past. Local subsidence (sinking) or rising sea level—or both—made the connections among the islands possible. Even today, it is possible to walk between certain islands during low tides. This astronaut photograph illustrates the geographic configuration of the archipelago and its effect on ocean wave patterns. Long, linear swells oriented northeast-southwest and moving to the southeast (from image upper left to lower right) are diffracted (bent) as they approach the coastlines and small shoals of the Isles. The wave diffraction forms complex interacting surface patterns that are most clearly visible southwest of St. Mary’s island (image left). The dominant ocean wave pattern resumes to the southeast of St. Mary’s, but with an additional northwest-southeast pattern superimposed, possibly due to winds originating in the English channel to the east (not shown). Suspended, tan-colored sediments visible within and around the archipelago come from wave erosion of the granite that forms the islands and from remobilization of beach sands. Bright white areas in the photograph are waves breaking on shoals. The Isles have been designated a United Kingdom Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty due to their unique landscape, ecology, and historical significance. The potential effect of rising sea level on the Isles is a primary concern for both long-term ecosystem health and human habitability.
ISS014-E-17346	Venice, Italy: A space-based perspective of the city of Venice quickly reveals different development and land uses in the region; the major islands in the lagoon surrounding Venice—Laguna Veneta—look different from one another. The island of Venice itself, a dense urban landscape, appears almost uniformly covered with red-tiled roofs. By contrast, port facilities and the train station at the west end of the island appear in shades of gray. The islands of Giudecca and Murano (famous for glassware) are almost as densely built up as Venice, but the whole walled island of San Michele, used as a cemetery since Napoleon’s occupation, is covered with trees and tombs. Lido di Venezia, which separates the lagoon from the Adriatic Sea, has more “green space” than Venice, as do the islands to Venice’s east. Though Venice’s population is fewer than 70,000 residents and declining, as many as 12 million people visit the city every year. Many arrive from the mainland via the bridge at the train station. Many also arrive by boats; boat wakes can be seen as white flashes in many parts of the image. A prominent visual feature of the Venice metropolitan area is the S-bend of the Grand Canal. The famous Rialto Bridge is big enough to appear as a white break in the canal in this astronaut photograph. St. Mark’s Square, where St. Mark’s Church and the Doge’s Palace are located, are also visible at the east end of the canal.
ISS014-E-15258	Kwangju, South Korea: Kwangju (or Gwangju) Metropolitan City is the fifth largest urban area in South Korea. With a population of 1.4 million people, it is a major economic and cultural center for the southern portion of the country. The city is located in a geographic basin with high mountains to the east—the mountain of Mudeungsan has a peak elevation of 1,140 meters (3,740 feet)—and more open plains to the west. The most notable feature in this astronaut photograph is an interesting blue cast to the urbanized regions. Digital astronaut photographs capture the same red, green, and blue wavelengths of reflected light that human eyes are sensitive to (known as a “true-color” image), and urban areas typically appear in tones of grey in such images. The distinctive blue-grey color of the Kwangju metropolitan area is the result of numerous blue rooftops, present on both small residential buildings (not visible at the image resolution) and large industrial buildings such as those located at image center and image right. High-resolution imagery of the rooftops (not shown) suggests that the blue color is the result of painting rather than an intrinsic characteristic of the building material. Gwangju is perhaps best known to the West as the location of the Gwangju Massacre of May 1980, in which civilian demonstrators were killed by government forces during a period of military rule in South Korea. The event is commonly described as the driving force behind the country’s democratic reforms, and it has led to identification of the city within South Korea as “the shrine of Korean democracy.”
ISS014-E-15732	Salt Ponds, Botswana: This detailed astronaut photograph shows the salt ponds of one of Africa’s major producers of soda ash (sodium carbonate) and salt. Soda ash is used for making glass, in metallurgy, in the detergent industry, and in chemical manufacture. The image shows a small part of the great salt flats of central Botswana known as the Makgadikgadi Salt Pans. The soda ash and salt are mainly exported (since 1989) to countries in southern and central Africa. Salt water from just beneath the pan floor is evaporated to produce the soda ash and salt—a process for which the semiarid climate of Botswana is ideal. Red, salt-loving algae in the ponds indicate that the salinity of the evaporating water is medium to high. The salt pans of Botswana—an easily recognizable visual feature for astronauts aboard the ISS—lie at the low point of a vast, shallow continental basin. Rivers draining from as far away as central Angola, more than 1000 kilometers (621 miles) away, supply water to the pans. During several wet climatic phases in the recent geological past, the pans were filled with water for thousands of years, only to dry out when climates fluctuated to drier conditions. During dry phases, water only reaches the pans underground. This underground, salty water supports the ash and salt industry. During wet phases, when open water exists, waves build up beach ridges. One of these ridges crosses the lower part of the view. Additional astronaut imagery shows another prominent set of salt ponds, near the Dead Sea.
ISS014-E-17999	Springtime Comes to the Niagara River: (image is paired with/compared to image ISS015-E-5624) What a difference a month makes! These two images of the Niagara River draining Lake Erie (bottom) into Lake Ontario (top) were acquired about a month apart (March 21 and April 29, 2007, respectively) from the International Space Station. The pair documents the breakup of the Lake Erie ice pack, the unofficial signature of spring for residents of Buffalo and Niagara Falls. In March, the eastern end of Lake Erie is clogged with ice that is pushed against the shoreline by the prevailing westerly wind. The ice collects in Lake Erie, and the Lake Erie-Niagara River Ice Boom prevents it from flowing down the Niagara River, which is the international boundary between the Canadian Province of Ontario, and New York State. The 2,680-meter (8,800-foot) boom is deployed each December. Operational since 1964, the boom serves several functions: it protects the water intakes for the Niagara River power plants, and it minimizes ice runs (large blocks of ice flowing downstream as ice breaks up in the spring) and blockages that can create damage and flooding along the river. At the height of winter, the thickness of the ice at the Buffalo harbor can reach 3.5 meters (12 feet). The removal of the ice boom, usually in early April, is now marked by local celebrations. This year the boom was removed in mid-April, a bit later than usual. A webcam allows remote viewers to monitor ice pack at the boom. During their missions, astronauts track the changing seasons using such indicators as the springtime melting of ice packs in high-latitude oceans and lakes. Over the next two years, the space station astronauts will make these types of observations to support International Polar Year (IPY) investigations. Scientists interested in requesting high-latitude imagery from the space station for IPY science should visit the Johnson Space Center Gateway to Astronaut Photography of the Earth International Polar Year Website.
ISS014-E-14618	Maracaibo City and Oil Slick, Venezuela: This astronaut photograph depicts the narrow (6-kilometer-wide) strait between Lake Maracaibo to the south and the Gulf of Venezuela to the north. This brackish lake in northern Venezuela is the largest in South America. The lake and its small basin sit on top of a vast reservoir of buried oil deposits, first tapped in 1914. Venezuela is now the world’s fifth largest oil producer. The narrow strait has been deepened to allow ocean-going vessels access to the lake for oil transport. Shipping is one of the main sources of pollution in the lake; pollution enters the lake when when ships dump ballast and other waste. An oil slick, likely related to bilge pumping, can be seen as a bright streak northeast of El Triunfo in this image from February 23, 2007. Other sources of pollution to the lake include underwater oil pipeline leakage, untreated municipal and industrial waste from coastal cities, and runoff of chemicals from surrounding farm land. Deepening the narrow channel for shipping has also allowed saltwater intrusion into the lake, negatively affecting lake life. Since the discovery of oil, cities like Maracaibo have sprung up along the northwestern coastline of the lake. With satellite cities such as San Luis and El Triunfo (visible in this view), greater Maracaibo has a population of about 2.5 million. Just outside the lower margin of the picture, a major bridge spans the narrows pictured here, connecting cities such as Altagracia (top right) to Maracaibo. Related images South-looking image of the entire lake in 1985 Oil slicks on Lake Maracaibo in 2003 Duckweed infestation on Lake Maracaibo during 2004 (astronaut photo) Lake-wide view of 2004 duckweed invasion (satellite image)
ISS014-E-7578	Nardo Ring, Italy: The Nardò Ring is a striking visual feature from space, and astronauts have photographed it several times. The Ring is a race car test track; it is 12.5 kilometers long and steeply banked to reduce the amount of active steering needed by drivers. Although it is a perfect circle, it appears oval in this photograph. This distortion is because the astronaut’s viewing angle was 35 degrees, looking back along the orbit track to the southwest from the International Space Station’s window. The Nardò Ring lies in a remote area on the heel of Italy’s “boot,” 50 kilometers east of the naval port of Taranto. The small coastal town of Villaggio Boncore—visible as a light grey area of linear streets at the bottom center of the image—lies just to the south, but the Ring is named after the bigger urban center of Nardò, 22 kilometers to the southeast (not shown). The Ring encompasses a number of active (green) and fallow (brown to dark brown) agricultural fields. In this zone of intensive agriculture, farmers gain access to their fields through the Ring via a series of underpasses. Winding features within the southern section of the Ring appear to be smaller, unused race tracks.

This service is provided by the International Space Station program and the JSC Astromaterials Research & Exploration Science Directorate. Recommended Citation: Image Science and Analysis Laboratory, NASA-Johnson Space Center. "The Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth." .
	NASA Responsible Official: Susan Runco Curator: jsc-earthweb@mail.nasa.gov Contributors: Earth Sciences Web Team	National Aeronautics and Space Administration Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center	International Space Station National Laboratory Last Update:
Server: 1