STS-095 Earth Sciences and Image Analysis Photographic Highlights

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STS095-743-33
photo ID STS095-743-33
STS095-743-33         Click the photo number to access all resolutions available and the database record.
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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