Earth from Space - Image Description

STS073-744-049 Central Los Angeles, California, U.S.A. November 1995
The network of freeways that crisscrosses metropolitan Los Angeles is captured in this near-vertical, color infrared photograph. Several major freeways--Long Beach, San Gabriel River, and Riverside--are immediately adjacent to and parallel with the major rivers that drain the basin. This relationship of freeway and river enhances the detectability of these corridors as highly reflective, white lines. The dark lines are either part of the road network or water channels for agriculture. Scattered industrial and commercial features appear as highly reflective, larger spatial areas. The central business district is visible. The east-west-oriented runways of Los Angeles International Airport are discernible midway between the Palos Verdes Hills and the Santa Monica Mountains adjacent to Santa Monica Bay. Two major port facilities lie east of the Palos Verdes Peninsula. Color infrared film displays green vegetation (parks, college campuses, or golf courses) as reds in the photograph.

This service is provided by the International Space Station program and the JSC Earth Science & Remote Sensing Unit, ARES Division, Exploration Integration Science Directorate.