Earth from Space - Image Description

STS090-751-045 Southeast Coast, Florida, USA April 1998
Four distinct features are evident in this shot of the southeast coast of Florida: cultivated field patterns (northwest); poorly drained swamplands (center, southwest); urban sprawl (north-south corridor along coast); and the Atlantic Ocean. The large fields of sugarcane (southeast of Lake Okeechobee, lower left corner) are gridded by canals and roads (linear, northwest-southeast diagonal lines). The muddy looking, uniform area south, southeast of the agricultural land are wetlands upstream from the Everglades. The most northeasterly wetland polygon is Arthur R. Mitchell National Wildlife Refuge. The very light areas along the east coast of Florida are the urban areas that extend from West Palm Beach (north) to Fort Lauderdale (south). The white line running east-west near the southern edge of the image is Interstate Highway 75, otherwise known as Alligator Alley (Everglades Parkway).

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