Home >>	Advanced Search >>
Search: (click here for database search description)

Astronaut Photography of Earth - Display Record

ISS017-E-19616

Low-resolution Browse Image

(Most browse images are not color adjusted.)

Images

Conditions for Use of Images >>
Image Transformation Tutorial >> Saving, Color Adjusting, and Printing Images >>

Images to View on Your Computer Now

	File Name	File Size (bytes)	Width	Height	Annotated	Cropped	Purpose	Comments
View	ISS017-E-19616.JPG	62841	640	437	No	No
View	ISS017-E-19616.JPG	214955	540	358	Yes	Yes	NASA's Earth Observatory web site

Large Images to Request for Downloading

	File Name	File Size (bytes)	Width	Height	Annotated	Cropped	Purpose	Comments
Request	ISS017-E-19616.JPG	532485	1000	663	No	Yes	NASA's Earth Observatory web site
Request	ISS017-E-19616.JPG	566702	3072	2098	No	No

Download a Keyhole Markup Language (KML) file for use in Google Earth.

Electronic Image Data

Camera Files >> No sound file available.

Identification

Mission: ISS017 Roll: E Frame: 19616 Mission ID on the Film or image: ISS017
Country or Geographic Name: TURKMENISTAN
Features: AMUDARYA RIVER, HINDU KUSH MTS, DUST STORM
Center Point Latitude: 36.0 Center Point Longitude: 63.4 (Negative numbers indicate south for latitude and west for longitude)
Stereo: (Yes indicates there is an adjacent picture of the same area)
ONC Map ID: JNC Map ID:

Camera

Camera Tilt: High Oblique
Camera Focal Length: 28mm
Camera: N2: Nikon D2Xs
Film: 4288E : 4288 x 2848 pixel CMOS sensor, RGBG imager color filter.

Quality

Film Exposure:
Percentage of Cloud Cover: 10 (0-10)

Nadir

Date: 20081016 (YYYYMMDD)GMT Time: 105953 (HHMMSS)
Nadir Point Latitude: 33.8, Longitude: 72.5 (Negative numbers indicate south for latitude and west for longitude)
Nadir to Photo Center Direction: West
Sun Azimuth: 245 (Clockwise angle in degrees from north to the sun measured at the nadir point)
Spacecraft Altitude: 188 nautical miles (348 km)
Sun Elevation Angle: 18 (Angle in degrees between the horizon and the sun, measured at the nadir point)
Orbit Number: 761

Captions

Dust storm, Turkmenistan, Central Asia

This west-looking astronaut photograph, taken with a short focal length lens from the International Space Station, spans a wide swath of central Asia—from Afghanistan, along the length of Turkmenistan, and beyond to the Caspian Sea. Winds blowing down the largest river valley in the region, the Amudarya, were strong enough to raise a large dust storm. Dust appears as a light brown mass extending into the center of the image from the lower right. Diffuse dust from prior windy weather appears over much of the area making a regional haze that hides landscape details. The haze partly obscures the irrigated agriculture in Turkmenistan and entirely obscures the Caspian Sea.

Numerous rivers rise in the Hindu Kush range (lower left). The Band-i Amir River is a major tributary of the main regional river, the Amudarya, which it reaches via a deep canyon. The Amudarya River was the major historical contributor of water to the Aral Sea, but today extensive diversion of river water for agricultural purposes has led to desiccation of the sea bed. The exposed sea bed is a major source of saline dusts contaminated with agricultural chemicals, and it poses a significant environmental and human health hazard to central Asia. To a lesser extent, dusts are also mobilized from sediments along the Amudarya River channel.

The Paropamisus Range and the Amudarya (also known as the Oxus River) are mentioned in histories of Alexander the Great’s famous military expedition from Greece to India. His horsemen are described as having made a fast side excursion from near the Caspian Sea (image top right) as far as the Amudarya (image lower right).

Download Packaged File.
This option downloads the following items, packaged into a single file, if they are available:

Browse image
Cataloged information with captions
Camera file
Sound file

Search the Astronaut Photography Database

Server: 2

This service is provided by the International Space Station program.