Photo #: ISS033-E-14856 Date: Oct. 2012Geographic Region: QATAR
Feature: QATAR AT NIGHT, BAHRAIN AT NIGHT
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Photo #: ISS033-E-14856 Date: Oct. 2012 Geographic Region: QATAR Feature: QATAR AT NIGHT, BAHRAIN AT NIGHT |
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| Qatar, Persian Gulf, at Night Night lights can be very revealing regarding the distribution of people on the landscape. Here the lights of Qatar show the precise demographic geography of the country. The brightest group at image center shows the capital city Doha with the neighboring smaller ports of Ad-Dahira and Umm Sa'id to the north and south, respectively. Even highways and their relative importance can be discerned. Highways are clearly visible leading from the capital west to the Dukhan oil fields, to Saudi Arabia, and to the north of the country--where, judging by the lack of night lights, the population is very low. The relatively minor coast road between the oil fields and the Saudi frontier also stands out. This kind of highly informative human geographic detail is very difficult to discern in daylight images, in which even larger cities, especially in deserts, are hard to see. Almost the entire island nation of Bahrain appears at lower left, with its capital city Manama nearly as bright as the lights of Doha. The difference in light intensity reflects a difference in population--Doha has 1.45 million inhabitants, while the very dense Manama metro area has a population of 1.2 million. While some night views are highly informative about a landscape, they can also be difficult and confusing to locate. Astronauts learn to recognize where they are at night by flying over populated places repeatedly, even though coastlines--one of their best geographic indicators--are generally lost to view because water surfaces and unpopulated land surfaces look the same without illumination (such as from a full moon). Thus the thumb-shaped Qatari peninsula, so well-known in Middle Eastern geography, cannot be discerned at all in this night image. |
| Images: | All Available Images Low-Resolution 158k |
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| Mission: | ISS033 |
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| Roll - Frame: | E - 14856 |
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| Geographical Name: | QATAR |
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| Features: | QATAR AT NIGHT, BAHRAIN AT NIGHT |
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| Center Lat x Lon: | 25.0N x 51.5E |
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| Film Exposure: | N=Normal exposure, U=Under exposed, O=Over exposed, F=out of Focus |
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| Percentage of Cloud Cover-CLDP: | 0 |
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| Camera:: | N5 |
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| Camera Tilt: | 24 | LO=Low Oblique, HO=High Oblique, NV=Near Vertical |
| Camera Focal Length: | 70 |
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| Nadir to Photo Center Direction: | N | 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 |
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| Orbit Number: | |
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| Date: | 20121013 | YYYYMMDD |
| Time: | 222750 | GMT HHMMSS |
| Nadir Lat: | 23.4N |
Latitude of suborbital point of spacecraft |
| Nadir Lon: | 51.6E |
Longitude of suborbital point of spacecraft |
| Sun Azimuth: | 69 | Clockwise angle in degrees from north to the sun measured at the nadir point |
| Space Craft Altitude: | 216 | nautical miles |
| Sun Elevation: | -56 | Angle in degrees between the horizon and the sun, measured at the nadir point |
| Land Views: | COAST, ISLAND, MOON, PENINSULA |
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| Water Views: | GULF |
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| Atmosphere Views: | |
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| Man Made Views: | |
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| City Views: | DOHA, MANAMA |
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Photo is not associated with any sequences | ||
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