Start Date: End Date: Published Date Data Date
Flooding in Somalia
Published March 5, 2007
The Horn of Africa frequently sees heavy precipitation during El Niño periods. In late November 2006, southern Somalia and eastern Ethiopia were experiencing severe flooding that displaced hundreds of thousands of people. These two astronaut photographs show the same coastal region in Somalia, south of the capital of Mogadishu, providing a visual contrast between wet and normal conditions.
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Montreal
Published February 26, 2007
The largest city in the Canadian province of Québec and the largest inland port in the world, Montréal takes its name from a distinctive landscape feature at the center of the city. Mont-Royal (“royal mountain” in French) rises to an elevation of 233 meters (about 764 feet) at Colline de la Croix peak.
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Barcelona, Spain
Published February 19, 2007
Barcelona, Spain, occupies a low plateau along the Mediterranean coastal plain. The city is the second largest in Spain (after the capital, Madrid), and it hosts the country’s largest seaport, portions of which are visible in the lower right of the image. This detailed astronaut photograph captures several notable features of the Barcelona urban landscape. The architectural design of the Eixample district (image center) displays a grid pattern distinctive for Barcelona. Built during the 19th and 20th centuries, the district was built with octagonal city blocks—rectangular blocks with the corners cut off. (At the level of detail of this photograph, the blocks appear to be squares.) The original intention was for buildings to occupy only two or three sides of the octagonal blocks, surrounding gardens and open space. While the original street grid pattern remains, today many of the octagonal blocks are completely built up.
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Erg Oriental, Algeria
Published February 12, 2007
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Mumbai, India
Published February 5, 2007
Mumbai is a megacity, one whose population is more than 10 million. More than 21 million people live in the greater Mumbai metropolitan region.
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The Top of the Atmosphere
Published February 2, 2007
Atmospheric gases scatter blue wavelengths of visible light more than other wavelengths, giving the Earth’s visible edge a blue halo. At higher and higher altitudes, the atmosphere becomes so thin that it essentially ceases to exist. Gradually, the atmospheric halo fades into the blackness of space. This astronaut photograph captured on July 20, 2006, shows a nearly translucent moon emerging from behind the halo.
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Pagan Island, Northern Mariana Islands
Published January 29, 2007
Pagan Island (image right) is made up of two volcanoes connected by a narrow isthmus of land. The volcanoes are stratovolcanoes, which are tall, typically cone-shaped structures formed by layers of dense, crystallized lava and less-dense ash and pumice. Mount Pagan, the larger of the two volcanoes, forms the northeastern portion of the island and has been the most active historically.
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The East Pacific Rise from Near and Far
Published January 23, 2007
What do oceanographers and astronauts have in common? Observations of the complex interactions between different Earth systems, for one. Astronauts aboard the International Space Station routinely observe and photograph the Earth’s surface to visualize the complicated interfaces between the atmosphere, the ocean, the land, and life on the surface. Oceanographers are also interdisciplinary students of the Earth; their interests include geology, chemistry, hydrology, and biology. Currently, a team of scientists is cruising the eastern Pacific Ocean off the coast of Mexico and is preparing for submersible dives on the East Pacific Rise, part of the world’s mid-ocean ridge system.
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Gallipoli and Dardanelles Strait, Turkey
Published January 22, 2007
The city of Gallipoli sits at a crossroads between the Marmara and Aegean Seas, connected by the Dardanelles Strait. he urbanized area of modern Gallipoli is visible as a light gray to pink region at the entrance to the Dardanelles Strait.
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New Orleans and Lake Pontchartrain
Published January 15, 2007
In this astronaut photograph from November 16, 2006, sunglint—light reflected directly back to the camera onboard the International Space Station (ISS) from a water surface—accentuates the wetland setting of New Orleans by highlighting the numerous lakes, ponds, and rivers (in various shades of silver-gray) surrounding the city.
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Gibraltar Bay, Western Mediterranean Sea
Published January 8, 2007
Gibraltar Bay, located near the southernmost tip of the Iberian Peninsula, is the central feature of this astronaut photograph. The famous Rock of Gibraltar that forms the northeastern border of the bay is formed of Jurassic-era seafloor sediments that solidified into limestone, a rock formed mostly of the mineral calcite, which is found in the shells of sea creatures. The limestone was subsequently lifted above the ocean surface when the African and Eurasian tectonic plates collided. The cities of La Linea and Algeciras bordering the bay, together with petroleum-processing facilities along the northern shoreline, are part of Spain, whereas the city of Gibraltar itself (to the west of and including the Rock) is under the jurisdiction of the United Kingdom.
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Dyess Air Force Base: Abilene, Texas
Published January 1, 2007
Dyess Air Force Base, located near the central Texas city of Abilene, is the home of the 7thBomb Wing and 317th Airlift Groups of the United States Air Force. The main runway is approximately 5 kilometers long, a distance that is necessary to accommodate the large bombers and cargo aircraft at the base. Many of these aircraft are visible in the image, parked in parallel rows on the base tarmac.
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