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  Image: Geographic Location Direction Photo #: ISS048-E-67483 Date: Aug. 2016
Geographic Region: UKRAINE
Feature: KANIV RESERVOIR, ALGAE BLOOMS, DNIEPER RIVER

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  View Low-Resolution Image  
  Agricultural Marks the Landscape in Central Ukraine

While flying over eastern Europe, an astronaut aboard the International Space Station took this photograph of Kaniv Reservoir on the Dnieper River, approximately 72 kilometers (45 miles) south of Kiev, Ukraine. Neon green algae blooms, young forests that cover old crops, and variegated patches of agriculture - each of these unique features of the landscape are connected through history and its consequences.

In the early 1920s, a policy known as "collectivization" was adopted by the Soviet Union. For Ukrainians, the agricultural policy meant that most farming took place in kolkhozes (collective farms), with a large percentage of harvests being sent to urban centers. After the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, land in Ukraine was divided into small sections among the rural population, with each plot representing a former kolkhoz farmer.

Today agriculture is still a major part of the Ukrainian economy, with more than 70 percent of the country's land area devoted to husbandry. Most of the agricultural plots are still used for growing crops, though some are fallow or abandoned and some overgrown with young forests. As a consequence of the pervasive agricultural land use, an abundance of fertilizer runs off into the nearby rivers and reservoirs, leading to phytoplankton (often algae) blooms. The algae seen here, and the nutrients they consume, also travel down the Dnieper River and its tributaries to the Black Sea, where larger phytoplankton blooms can occur.


 
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Images: All Available Images Low-Resolution 652k
Mission: ISS048  
Roll - Frame: E - 67483
Geographical Name: UKRAINE  
Features: KANIV RESERVOIR, ALGAE BLOOMS, DNIEPER RIVER  
Center Lat x Lon: 49.9N x 31.4E
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: 42   LO=Low Oblique, HO=High Oblique, NV=Near Vertical
Camera Focal Length: 290  
 
Nadir to Photo Center Direction: SW   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: 20160828   YYYYMMDD
Time: 093703   GMT HHMMSS
Nadir Lat: 51.5N  
Latitude of suborbital point of spacecraft
Nadir Lon: 34.2E  
Longitude of suborbital point of spacecraft
Sun Azimuth: 177   Clockwise angle in degrees from north to the sun measured at the nadir point
Space Craft Altitude: 215   nautical miles
Sun Elevation: 48   Angle in degrees between the horizon and the sun, measured at the nadir point
Land Views:  
Water Views:  
Atmosphere Views:  
Man Made Views:  
City Views:  
Photo is not associated with any sequences


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