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  Image: Geographic Location Direction Photo #: ISS045-E-549 Date: Sep. 2015
Geographic Region: CHINA
Feature: SIPING CITY, AIRPORT, VILLAGES

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  View Low-Resolution Image  
  North China city patterns

Some parts of the world display such unique human patterns that astronauts learn which country they are overflying just by looking out of windows in the International Space Station. This astronaut digital photograph of China's northern province of Jilin, shows a pattern of small, tightly packed villages, the classic pattern of rural China. The villages are typically less than 2 km (1.25 mi) apart (image left and far right) set within a landscape of dark green agricultural fields. The light-toned villages are elongated along local streams. By contrast, North America seen from space looks markedly rectangular because of prominent field boundaries -- which also give astronauts an instant sense of direction because they are mostly aligned north-south/east-west



Prominently overlaid on this ancient pattern is the large modern city of Siping (population 615,000 in 2010), with associated features of nearly straight highways and railroads, a ring road, and an airport (its length, which give a sense of scale: 2.4 km, 1.5 mi). Siping began its growth in the early 1900s when the first railroad connected it to the coast. Battles were fought here during the Chinese Civil War (1927-1950), devastating the city.


 
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Images: All Available Images Low-Resolution 114k
Mission: ISS045  
Roll - Frame: E - 549
Geographical Name: CHINA  
Features: SIPING CITY, AIRPORT, VILLAGES  
Center Lat x Lon: 43.1N x 124.3E
Film Exposure:   N=Normal exposure, U=Under exposed, O=Over exposed, F=out of Focus
Percentage of Cloud Cover-CLDP: 10
 
Camera: N6
 
Camera Tilt: 19   LO=Low Oblique, HO=High Oblique, NV=Near Vertical
Camera Focal Length: 500  
 
Nadir to Photo Center Direction: NW   The direction from the nadir to the center point, N=North, S=South, E=East, W=West
Stereo?:   Y=Yes there is an adjacent picture of the same area, N=No there isn't
Orbit Number:  
 
Date: 20150913   YYYYMMDD
Time: 012914   GMT HHMMSS
Nadir Lat: 42.4N  
Latitude of suborbital point of spacecraft
Nadir Lon: 125.3E  
Longitude of suborbital point of spacecraft
Sun Azimuth: 135   Clockwise angle in degrees from north to the sun measured at the nadir point
Space Craft Altitude: 214   nautical miles
Sun Elevation: 43   Angle in degrees between the horizon and the sun, measured at the nadir point
Land Views:  
Water Views:  
Atmosphere Views:  
Man Made Views: AIRPORT  
City Views:  
Photo is not associated with any sequences


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