Earth from Space - Image Description

STS033-081-001 Alberga Creek, South Australia, Australia November 1989
Located in the southeast corner of the Simpson Desert in central Australia, the Alberga Creek distributary channels are visible as dark lines that fan out near the right upper edge of the image. These streams have their headwater areas as well as their final distributary channels in the desert. This creek can be considered part of the much larger Lake Eyre drainage basin, although it is doubtful if any water ever makes it from Alberga Creek to Lake Eyre. Alberga Creek is one of literally hundreds of stream channels that criss-cross the expansive interior basin of Australia. The north-south oriented, lighter features near center of the picture are small dry lake beds which have formed between linear dunes. The darker arcing feature along the left side of the picture is another stream channel where some type of plant life exists. The subtle dendritic drainage patterns west of the linear dry lake beds are generated by water from rare rains flowing off of the slightly elevated terrain.

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