Start Date: End Date: Published Date Data Date
Salt Evaporation Ponds, Dead Sea
1286 x 1316 2 MB - JPEG
Published May 13, 2001
The complex of Jordanian salt evaporation ponds at the southern end of the Dead Sea has expanded significantly over the past dozen years. The western margin of the salt ponds marks the Jordan-Israel border. In August 1989, when the crew of Space Shuttle mission STS-28 photographed the region, the northern extension did not exist and the large polygonal ponds in the northwestern and northeastern sectors had not been subdivided. In the view taken by the STS-102 crew in March 2001, one can see that there has also been expansion at the southeastern end, and that levees now segment the northeastern wedge into four ponds.
Related images:
1286 x 1280 2 MB - JPEG
Estevan Coalfield and Power Plants, Saskatchewan
540 x 410 78 KB - JPEG
Published May 10, 2001
2210 x 1677 320 KB - JPEG
Gobi Dust Over Northeast China and Korea
540 x 546 JPEG
Published May 6, 2001
Dust blowing off the Gobi desert eastward across the China toward the Pacific Ocean is a common event in April. Space Shuttle astronauts have photographed these dusts storms several times. These photographs, taken by astronauts on April 25, 1990, show a thick blanket of dust that entirely obscures the southern half of the Korean Peninsula. The dust is being transported from west (left) to east (right). The mountainous spine of the peninsula induces gravity waves in the dust cloud on the downwind (east) side.
540 x 535 43 KB - JPEG
Another New Lake in Egypt
4127 x 4096 848 KB - JPEG
Published April 22, 2001
As the Space Shuttle Atlantis passed over southern Egypt in mid-March 2001, the STS-102 astronauts were able to document new flooding in the Toshka region west of Lake Nasser. The formation of the Toshka Lakes in southern Egypt is part of Egypt’s New Valley Project. The flooding of the region has been monitored by astronauts since 1998, and continues to show rapid changes.
Aurora Australis
540 x 355 JPEG
Published April 15, 2001
Reds and greens dominate this view of the northern lights as photographed from the Space Shuttle in May 1991.
1782 x 1173 558 KB - JPEG
Mt. Kilimanjaro’s Receding Glaciers
540 x 540 JPEG
Published April 8, 2001
Mt. Kilimanjaro (Tanzania), the highest point in all Africa, was photographed by the crew of Space Shuttle mission STS-97 on December 2, 2000. Kilimanjaro (Kilima Njaro or “shining mountain” in Swahili) is capped by glaciers on its southern and southwestern flanks.
2048 x 2048 1 MB Bytes - JPEG
Ariake Sea, Kyushu, Japan
540 x 400 JPEG
Published April 1, 2001
The Isahaya Bay Reclamation project separated approximately 3,000 hectares of tidal flats from the Ariake Sea in 1997. This photograph was taken from the Space Shuttle on April 27, 1998, a year after the sea wall separating Isahaya Bay from the rest of the Ariake Sea was closed.
2536 x 2572 1014 KB Bytes - JPEG
540 x 410 JPEG
Published March 18, 2001
Snow and ice serve to accent human activities in this photograph taken by the Space Shuttle mission STS-98 crewmembers on February 17, 2001. The Souris River stretches across the photograph from left to right, with the upstream Rafferty Dam Reservoir frozen over on the far left. Two power plants, the Boundary Dam Power Station and the Shand Power Station, can be identified by the smoke plumes and shadows of those plumes. The river is frozen over upstream of the Boundary Dam Power Station, but thermal loading from the plants has warmed the water in the Boundary Dam Reservoir so that it remains nearly ice free. Downstream of the reservoirs, thermal loading is sufficient to maintain open flow in the Souris River.
Mount Everest (Chomolungma, Goddess Mother of the World)
Published February 4, 2001
Mt. Everest is the highest (29,035 feet, 8850 meters) mountain in the world. This detailed look at Mt. Everest and Lhotse is part of a more extensive photograph of the central Himalaya taken in October 1993 that is one of the best views of the mountain captured by astronauts to date.
1286 x 1286 1 MB Bytes - JPEG
Lightning over Equatorial Africa
540 x 690 JPEG
Published January 21, 2001
The top of the large thunderstorm, roughly 20 km across, is illuminated by a full moon and frequent bursts of lightning.
1497 x 1914 651 KB - JPEG