STS095-711-64
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The Moon: In stark contrast, the near-full Moon hovers over
the limb of the Earth.
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STS095-743-33
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Florida Peninsula: Taken from a point over Cuba, this photo
shows an oblique, foreshortened view of the Florida Peninsula, with
the light blue, shallow seafloor of both the Florida Keys (curving
across the bottom of the view) and the Bahama banks (right).
"Popcorn" cumulus cloud covers Miami and the southern Everglades,
although the built-up area from Ft. Lauderdale to West Palm Beach
can be discerned. Lake Okeechobee is the prominent waterbody in
Florida. Cape Canaveral is shown well, half way up the peninsula.
Orlando appears as the lighter patch west (left) of Cape Canaveral,
near the middle of the peninsula. Cape Hatteras appears top right,
with the north part of Chesapeake Bay also visible. This is a
visibility of 16 degrees of latitude (23 degrees N over Cuba to 39
degrees at Baltimore), showing unusual atmospheric clarity.
Nevertheless, this photo also gives information on air flow and
aerosols in the atmosphere: thin but coherent corridors of haze,
probably generated by human activity, as is most haze over the USA,
from industrial emissions and agricultural biomass-burning, can be
seen over the Atlantic off the Georgia coast. These are common
features downwind of all industrialized nations and downwind of less
developed countries which perform intensive biomass burning of
savanna and rainforests.
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STS095-716-47
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Houston, Texas: The grid pattern of a modern American city is
well illustrated by this cloud-free photograph of the
Houston-Galveston Metropolitan area. There are over four million
people living in the region and it is one of the high growth regions
in the United States. The changes in land use patterns are documented
from the high density downtown areas of both Houston and Galveston to
the more open areas in the suburban regions. Galveston Bay is one of
the reasons for the growth as well as area rivers.
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STS095-724-77
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Aorounga Impact Crater: Two craters located in the Tibesti
Massif in northern Chad have two very different origins. Aorounga is
the multi-ringed impact crater at the center of the image. The crater
has a diameter of 12.6 km and is estimated to be less than 345
million years old. The impact nature of the crater was confirmed in
1992 when a team of French investigators identified shocked minerals
at the site. The grooves running through Aorounga were created by
winds that blow around Tibesti. Emi Koussi, the crater on the right,
is a Holocene stratovolcano.
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STS095-703-93
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Panoramic View of Atlas Mountains: View looking towards
Morocco and Spain (top). The High Atlas mountains appear as a dark
brown area extending from the left towards the center of the image.
The Straits of Gibraltar separate the Atlantic Ocean (left) from the
Mediterranean Sea (right). This area of the Atlas Mountains is north
and east of John Glenn's Mercury photograph.
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STS095-716-10
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San Antonio Area: The San Antonio Area is one of the fastest
growing areas in Texas. It is on the edge of the of the Balcones
escarpment which forms the eastern edge of the Edwards Plateau. This
city of over a million people derives all of its water from the
limestone aquifer in the plateau. This series of photographs shows
the quarries along the edge of the plateau to the North of San
Antonio. They are the white areas in the darker green edge along
Highway 281. To the South near Pearsall irrigated fields are
visible. Pearsall is recognizable by the bypass of Interstate
Highway 35 around the town. Other prominent features are the "L"
shaped Lake Medina West of the city and Canyon Lake to the North.
East of the city is a darker area of vegetation that denotes a band
of sandy soils. The area supports conifers rather than the
prairie-scrub of the surrounding soils.
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MER6-0-26
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Anti-Atlas Mountains: Southernmost extent of the Atlas
Mountains (Anti Atlas) as photographed by John Glenn on February 20,
1962. (submitted by Kim Willis)
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