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  Image: Geographic Location Direction Photo #: ISS050-E-37024 Date: Jan. 2017
Geographic Region: ITALY
Feature: MT. VESUVIUS, CIS, S. COAST, NAPLES AT NIGHT

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  View Low-Resolution Image  
  Naples and Mt. Vesuvius at Night

An astronaut aboard the International Space Station took this photograph of the city lights of Naples and the Campania region of southern Italy. A regional view of Italy from 2014 shows the Naples region to be one of the brightest in the country. Roughly three million people live in and around this metropolitan area.

The different colors of lights in the scene reflect some of the history of development in the area. The green lights are mercury vapor bulbs, an older variety that has been replaced in newer developments by orange sodium bulbs (yellow-orange). To the northeast, the lightless gaps between the homes and businesses are agricultural fields. The bright yellow-orange complex amidst the fields is the CIS emporium, the largest commercial retail facility in Europe.

The large black circular area in the photo is Mount Vesuvius, the only active volcano on Europe's mainland. Vesuvius is a stratovolcano, made up of different materials--pyroclastic flows, lava flows, and debris from lahars that accumulated to form the volcanic cone. Although any volcanic materials can endanger surrounding communities, pyroclastic flows of superheated ash and gas are among the most dangerous, moving at speeds of hundreds of kilometers per hour. The cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum were destroyed in 79 AD by pyroclastic flows, which trapped more than 16,000 people.

Such historic catastrophes --and the fact that 600,000 people live in the immediate vicinity--are the reason the volcano is one of the most heavily monitored in the world, with several dozen sensors located at many points on and around the cone.

Vesuvius is part of the Campanian Volcanic Arc which includes the Campi Flegrei caldera/geothermal field to the west of Naples near Agnano and Mount Etna in Sicily.

 
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Images: All Available Images Low-Resolution 123k
Mission: ISS050  
Roll - Frame: E - 37024
Geographical Name: ITALY  
Features: MT. VESUVIUS, CIS, S. COAST, NAPLES AT NIGHT  
Center Lat x Lon: 40.9N x 14.4E
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: 13   LO=Low Oblique, HO=High Oblique, NV=Near Vertical
Camera Focal Length: 400  
 
Nadir to Photo Center Direction: E   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: 20170130   YYYYMMDD
Time: 000302   GMT HHMMSS
Nadir Lat: 41.1N  
Latitude of suborbital point of spacecraft
Nadir Lon: 13.6E  
Longitude of suborbital point of spacecraft
Sun Azimuth: 25   Clockwise angle in degrees from north to the sun measured at the nadir point
Space Craft Altitude: 213   nautical miles
Sun Elevation: -65   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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