Earth Sciences and Image Analysis Photographic Highlights

ISS006 Earth Sciences and Image Analysis Photographic Highlights

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ISS006-E-24783 Southern Sierra Nevada and Owens Lake: Astronauts aboard the International Space Station looked obliquely down at the steep eastern flank of California’s Sierra Nevada. Even from space the topography is impressive—the range drops nearly 11,000 feet from Mt. Whitney (under cloud, arrow), the highest mountain in the lower 48 states (14,494 ft), to the floor of Owens Valley (the elevation of the town of Lone Pine is 3,760 ft). The Sierra Nevada landscape is well known for deep, glacially scoured valleys, like Kern Canyon west of Mt. Whitney.
The California landscape changes east of the Sierra, marked by alternating steep desert mountain ranges and valleys. Many of the valleys contain dry lakebeds, remnants of deep lakes that filled the valleys 11,000 years ago, at the end of the last ice age. Owens Lake was a salty lake until 1913, when the Owens River was diverted into the Los Angeles Aqueduct, quickly draining the lake. Today, Owens Lake is a dried salt flat that contains some pooled water following rains. Solar evaporation ponds lie along the northern edge. The bright red color in the wet parts of the lakebed is from the red color of salt-loving bacteria (halobacteria).
For more information about halobacteria, read Why Owens Lake Is Red!

ISS006-E-23743 Panama Canal: The Panama Canal is a 50-mile long engineering wonder connecting the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean. Completed by the United States in 1914, it runs southeastward from Colon, through the man-made Gatun Lake, to Panama City on the Pacific side of the Isthmus of Panama. The canal, a major artery of international shipping, uses a series of massive locks, manmade lakes, and water supplied by the copious tropical rainfall of the region to lift and lower transiting ships a height of 85 feet over the continental divide.
Thick rainforests border the canal, and the protected Canal Zone is easily delineated by the dark green band of forest, which contrast the lighter green cultivated areas of Panama. The ecologically sensitive Canal Zone supports diverse lowland rainforest that is crucial for water balance and erosion/siltation control around the canal. Scientists monitor the edges of the Canal Zone rainforest for degradation from development.
The crew of the International Space Station acquired this image on the afternoon of January 30, 2003, using an electronic still camera with 85 mm lens. Fair-weather cumulus clouds from the Caribbean can be seen pouring southward through the natural gap in this mountain chain of Central America.

ISS006-E-22939 London by Night: This nighttime view of the British capital offers unique insight into the city’s urban density and infrastructure as highlighted by electrical lighting. Interpreting the brightest areas as the most populated, the population density drops off rapidly from the bright urban center until it reaches the vicinity of the Orbital, an encircling roadway. Beyond lie isolated bright areas marking the numerous smaller cities and towns of the region and as far southeast as Hastings on the coast. Note London’s two major airports, Heathrow and Gatwick, and the particularly bright, sinuous stretch of the Orbital to the south of the city.
The crew of the International Space Station acquired this image shortly after 7:22 p.m. local time on the evening of February 4, 2003. Either thin, low clouds or perhaps fog is evident in the fuzzy character of patterns for some of the surrounding smaller cities while that of the warmer urban center is still clear and sharp.

ISS006-E-22132 Society Islands, French Polynesia: In one frame International Space Station astronauts were able to capture the evolution of fringing reefs to atolls. As with the Hawaiian Islands, these volcanic hot spot islands become progressively older to the northwest. As these islands move away from their magma sources they erode and subside. The two large islands, Raiatea and Tahaa, share a single fringing reef. The next island to the northwest, Bora-Bora, consists of a highly eroded volcanic remnant with fringing reef. The last island, Tupai, signifies the destiny of these islands; the fringing reef has become an atoll with the central island below sea level.
More information and photographs of tropical islands is included in the Islands chapter of Oceanography from the Space Shuttle.

ISS006-E-19300 Australian Bushfires: For nearly six weeks now, southeastern Australia has been experiencing an unprecedented bushfire emergency. Following months of regional drought, the worst in 50 years, this summer’s fire season has resulted in numerous large fires over much of the Great Dividing Range as well as an enormous smoke pall over New South Wales, Victoria, and the adjacent South Pacific Ocean. The fires have advanced from the lower foothills of the interior to higher elevations, recently threatening ski resorts in the Snowy Mountains.
The crew of the International Space Station took this dramatic image of the fires on the morning of January 18, 2003. Brisk winds are sweeping smoke plumes eastward off the Australian coast north of Cape Howe. The agricultural valleys of the Murrumbidgee and Murray Rivers give way to the burning, darker bush areas of the mountains with the extreme eastern coastline of Victoria visible beyond. Images like these are a unique contribution to our understanding of dynamic events — made possible by the human observer in orbit.

ISS006-E-15238 Crater Lake, Oregon: Crater Lake National Park celebrated it centennial last year, and is one of the nation’s oldest national parks. When Congress declared the area to be “dedicated and set apart forever as a public park or pleasure ground for the benefit and enjoyment of the people of the United States” in 1902, they could not have imagined that the landscape would inspire photographers viewing the Crater Lake from space.
Crater Lake, a volcanic caldera in South Central Oregon’s Cascade Mountains, boasts breathtaking scenery, created about 7,700 years ago with the volcanic eruption and subsequent collapse of the summit of Mt. Mazama. Today, the crater, about 8 km wide, contains the deepest lake in the United States — nearly 600 m (2000 ft) deep. The main source of the water in the lake is the annual snowfall of over 1300 cm (500 inches). When this image was taken from the International Space Station on January 6, 2003, nearly 180 cm (70 inches) of snow covered the ground.

ISS006-E-28028 Milky Way: This is a view of the Milky Way taken from the southern extent of the ISS orbit track. The bright area in the upper right hand corner is the Keyhole Nebula, a distant molecular cloud where young stars are forming. On the left hand side of the frame, you can see the four bright stars of the Southern Cross (the bottom three stars are bright blue in the image, and the top one looks more yellow).
All around the world, light interference makes it hard for us to view the detail in the heavens that could be seen by our ancestors. Above the atmosphere in low-Earth orbit, ISS astronaut Don Petit used his “Barn Door Tracker” and a digital camera to get astounding views of the heavens (see http://science.nasa.gov/ppod/y2003/10apr_barndoor.htm ).
An image like this shows the amazing versatility of the ISS as a platform.
ISS006-E-28028, 21 February 2003
The Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth, http://eol.jsc.nasa.gov

ISS006-E-43826 Diego Garcia island, Chagos Archipelago, Indian Ocean: 6 April 2003, 400 mm lens. Measuring 35 miles on the long axis, Diego Garcia is the largest island in the Chagos Archipelago, a British dependency in the NW Indian Ocean. The strategic location of the island with respect to the Persian Gulf and Saudi Arabia, with its full range of modern naval and air power facilities make the island a strategic military location, which supports a vital U.S. and British naval presence in the Indian Ocean and North Arabian Sea. The long runway can be seen at the widest part of the island.
Diego Garcia is a coral atoll built on top of a submerged volcano. The administration encourages strict conservation of the island's ecology.

ISS006-E-41776 Astronaut Don Pettit

ISS006-E-42173 Coast of southern Chile and Andean ice fields: The extremely indented coastline of southern Chile, typical of ice-carved fiord landscapes (Norway is another example), appears in partial sunglint, stretched across the view. Cloud occupies the top of the view in Argentina. Two smaller light patches represent the ice fields of the southern Andes (lower right corner and lower center). These permanent ice fields are able to persist at 47° S, as remnants of far larger ice fields that existed during the last glacial age (20,000 years ago). The spidery fingers of Lake O'Higgins/San Martín appear next to the southern ice field on the Argentine side of the Andes. Other lakes are also dimly visible.

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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

ISS006-E-24783	Southern Sierra Nevada and Owens Lake: Astronauts aboard the International Space Station looked obliquely down at the steep eastern flank of California’s Sierra Nevada. Even from space the topography is impressive—the range drops nearly 11,000 feet from Mt. Whitney (under cloud, arrow), the highest mountain in the lower 48 states (14,494 ft), to the floor of Owens Valley (the elevation of the town of Lone Pine is 3,760 ft). The Sierra Nevada landscape is well known for deep, glacially scoured valleys, like Kern Canyon west of Mt. Whitney. The California landscape changes east of the Sierra, marked by alternating steep desert mountain ranges and valleys. Many of the valleys contain dry lakebeds, remnants of deep lakes that filled the valleys 11,000 years ago, at the end of the last ice age. Owens Lake was a salty lake until 1913, when the Owens River was diverted into the Los Angeles Aqueduct, quickly draining the lake. Today, Owens Lake is a dried salt flat that contains some pooled water following rains. Solar evaporation ponds lie along the northern edge. The bright red color in the wet parts of the lakebed is from the red color of salt-loving bacteria (halobacteria). For more information about halobacteria, read Why Owens Lake Is Red!
ISS006-E-23743	Panama Canal: The Panama Canal is a 50-mile long engineering wonder connecting the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean. Completed by the United States in 1914, it runs southeastward from Colon, through the man-made Gatun Lake, to Panama City on the Pacific side of the Isthmus of Panama. The canal, a major artery of international shipping, uses a series of massive locks, manmade lakes, and water supplied by the copious tropical rainfall of the region to lift and lower transiting ships a height of 85 feet over the continental divide. Thick rainforests border the canal, and the protected Canal Zone is easily delineated by the dark green band of forest, which contrast the lighter green cultivated areas of Panama. The ecologically sensitive Canal Zone supports diverse lowland rainforest that is crucial for water balance and erosion/siltation control around the canal. Scientists monitor the edges of the Canal Zone rainforest for degradation from development. The crew of the International Space Station acquired this image on the afternoon of January 30, 2003, using an electronic still camera with 85 mm lens. Fair-weather cumulus clouds from the Caribbean can be seen pouring southward through the natural gap in this mountain chain of Central America.
ISS006-E-22939	London by Night: This nighttime view of the British capital offers unique insight into the city’s urban density and infrastructure as highlighted by electrical lighting. Interpreting the brightest areas as the most populated, the population density drops off rapidly from the bright urban center until it reaches the vicinity of the Orbital, an encircling roadway. Beyond lie isolated bright areas marking the numerous smaller cities and towns of the region and as far southeast as Hastings on the coast. Note London’s two major airports, Heathrow and Gatwick, and the particularly bright, sinuous stretch of the Orbital to the south of the city. The crew of the International Space Station acquired this image shortly after 7:22 p.m. local time on the evening of February 4, 2003. Either thin, low clouds or perhaps fog is evident in the fuzzy character of patterns for some of the surrounding smaller cities while that of the warmer urban center is still clear and sharp.
ISS006-E-22132	Society Islands, French Polynesia: In one frame International Space Station astronauts were able to capture the evolution of fringing reefs to atolls. As with the Hawaiian Islands, these volcanic hot spot islands become progressively older to the northwest. As these islands move away from their magma sources they erode and subside. The two large islands, Raiatea and Tahaa, share a single fringing reef. The next island to the northwest, Bora-Bora, consists of a highly eroded volcanic remnant with fringing reef. The last island, Tupai, signifies the destiny of these islands; the fringing reef has become an atoll with the central island below sea level. More information and photographs of tropical islands is included in the Islands chapter of Oceanography from the Space Shuttle.
ISS006-E-19300	Australian Bushfires: For nearly six weeks now, southeastern Australia has been experiencing an unprecedented bushfire emergency. Following months of regional drought, the worst in 50 years, this summer’s fire season has resulted in numerous large fires over much of the Great Dividing Range as well as an enormous smoke pall over New South Wales, Victoria, and the adjacent South Pacific Ocean. The fires have advanced from the lower foothills of the interior to higher elevations, recently threatening ski resorts in the Snowy Mountains. The crew of the International Space Station took this dramatic image of the fires on the morning of January 18, 2003. Brisk winds are sweeping smoke plumes eastward off the Australian coast north of Cape Howe. The agricultural valleys of the Murrumbidgee and Murray Rivers give way to the burning, darker bush areas of the mountains with the extreme eastern coastline of Victoria visible beyond. Images like these are a unique contribution to our understanding of dynamic events — made possible by the human observer in orbit.
ISS006-E-15238	Crater Lake, Oregon: Crater Lake National Park celebrated it centennial last year, and is one of the nation’s oldest national parks. When Congress declared the area to be “dedicated and set apart forever as a public park or pleasure ground for the benefit and enjoyment of the people of the United States” in 1902, they could not have imagined that the landscape would inspire photographers viewing the Crater Lake from space. Crater Lake, a volcanic caldera in South Central Oregon’s Cascade Mountains, boasts breathtaking scenery, created about 7,700 years ago with the volcanic eruption and subsequent collapse of the summit of Mt. Mazama. Today, the crater, about 8 km wide, contains the deepest lake in the United States — nearly 600 m (2000 ft) deep. The main source of the water in the lake is the annual snowfall of over 1300 cm (500 inches). When this image was taken from the International Space Station on January 6, 2003, nearly 180 cm (70 inches) of snow covered the ground.
ISS006-E-28028	Milky Way: This is a view of the Milky Way taken from the southern extent of the ISS orbit track. The bright area in the upper right hand corner is the Keyhole Nebula, a distant molecular cloud where young stars are forming. On the left hand side of the frame, you can see the four bright stars of the Southern Cross (the bottom three stars are bright blue in the image, and the top one looks more yellow). All around the world, light interference makes it hard for us to view the detail in the heavens that could be seen by our ancestors. Above the atmosphere in low-Earth orbit, ISS astronaut Don Petit used his “Barn Door Tracker” and a digital camera to get astounding views of the heavens (see http://science.nasa.gov/ppod/y2003/10apr_barndoor.htm ). An image like this shows the amazing versatility of the ISS as a platform. ISS006-E-28028, 21 February 2003 The Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth, http://eol.jsc.nasa.gov
ISS006-E-43826	Diego Garcia island, Chagos Archipelago, Indian Ocean: 6 April 2003, 400 mm lens. Measuring 35 miles on the long axis, Diego Garcia is the largest island in the Chagos Archipelago, a British dependency in the NW Indian Ocean. The strategic location of the island with respect to the Persian Gulf and Saudi Arabia, with its full range of modern naval and air power facilities make the island a strategic military location, which supports a vital U.S. and British naval presence in the Indian Ocean and North Arabian Sea. The long runway can be seen at the widest part of the island. Diego Garcia is a coral atoll built on top of a submerged volcano. The administration encourages strict conservation of the island's ecology.
ISS006-E-41776	Astronaut Don Pettit
ISS006-E-42173	Coast of southern Chile and Andean ice fields: The extremely indented coastline of southern Chile, typical of ice-carved fiord landscapes (Norway is another example), appears in partial sunglint, stretched across the view. Cloud occupies the top of the view in Argentina. Two smaller light patches represent the ice fields of the southern Andes (lower right corner and lower center). These permanent ice fields are able to persist at 47° S, as remnants of far larger ice fields that existed during the last glacial age (20,000 years ago). The spidery fingers of Lake O'Higgins/San Martín appear next to the southern ice field on the Argentine side of the Andes. Other lakes are also dimly visible.

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