Earth from Space - Image Description

NM22-741-54B Mexico City, Mexico Fall/Winter 1996
One of the world's largest metropolitan areas, Mexico City, is located near the center of the picture. Although the urban infrastructure of the city is barely discernible on this small scale image (Lake Texcoco, the large, dark rectangular feature and several major thoroughfares) the image does show the vegetated slopes (darker areas) of the numerous volcanoes that almost encircle Mexico City. A semi-circle of clouds is visible over the volcanic mountains east and south of the rapidly expanding urban area. Several isolated, large composite volcanoes and numerous smaller cinder cones are scattered throughout this arid region of the Mexican Plateau.

This service is provided by the International Space Station program and the JSC Earth Science & Remote Sensing Unit, ARES Division, Exploration Integration Science Directorate.