Earth from Space - Image Information


LOCATION Direction Photo #: ISS023-E-15093 Date: Mar. 2010
Geographic Region: RUSSIAN FEDERATION
Feature: URUP ISLAND, ICE FLOES, SNOW


IMAGE
 
Ice Floes off the Northeastern Tip of Urup Island, Russia

From space, it is sometimes difficult to tell where land ends and sea ice begins in the southern Sea of Okhotsk. This is particularly evident in this detailed astronaut photograph of the northeastern tip of Urup Island, one of the many islands in the Kuril chain, which extends from northern Japan to the Kamchatka Peninsula of Russia.

The approximately 120-kilometer-long island extends to the southwest from the point illustrated in the image; like the other Kuril Islands, Urup was formed from volcanic processes along the active subduction boundary between the Pacific and Okhotsk tectonic plates. The northeastern tip of the island and three small islands to the northeast are recognizable by their uniform cover of white snow and shadowing along the northwestern coastlines.

Sea ice that formed to the north in the Sea of Okhotsk has been piled up against the islands by prevailing northwesterly winds, forming an irregular mass connecting the islands (image center). The orientation of patchy low clouds over Urup Island (image lower left) also suggests that northwesterly winds are present.

Smaller ice floes are breaking off from the main ice mass at gaps between the islands and forming fingerlike projections of ice fragments that extend to the southeast (image lower right). Surface winds may be channeled through these gaps and accelerated, hastening the breakup and movement of ice.


Images: All Available Images Low-Resolution 173k
Mission: ISS023  
Roll - Frame: E - 15093
Geographical Name: RUSSIAN FEDERATION  
Features: URUP ISLAND, ICE FLOES, SNOW  
Center Lat x Lon: 46.2N x 150.6E
Film Exposure:   N=Normal exposure, U=Under exposed, O=Over exposed, F=out of Focus
Percentage of Cloud Cover-CLDP: 10
 
Camera:: N2
 
Camera Tilt: 13   LO=Low Oblique, HO=High Oblique, NV=Near Vertical
Camera Focal Length: 800  
 
Nadir to Photo Center Direction: W   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: 1115  
 
Date: 20100330   YYYYMMDD
Time: 231324   GMT HHMMSS
Nadir Lat: 46.4N  
Latitude of suborbital point of spacecraft
Nadir Lon: 151.3E  
Longitude of suborbital point of spacecraft
Sun Azimuth: 127   Clockwise angle in degrees from north to the sun measured at the nadir point
Space Craft Altitude: 183   nautical miles
Sun Elevation: 35   Angle in degrees between the horizon and the sun, measured at the nadir point
Land Views: ISLAND  
Water Views: SEA, SEA ICE  
Atmosphere Views:  
Man Made Views:  
City Views:  

Photo is not associated with any sequences


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