Earth from Space - Image Description

STS056-110-079 Flinders Island, Tasmania, Australia April 1993
Even though the colors of this color infrared image are a little unusual, the amount of detail is useful to map and identify certain features on Flinders Island. The hilly terrain is dark and appears in the middle and at both ends of the island, in contrast with the pinker agricultural lands on gentler slopes. A band of cumulus clouds is visible along the hilly central axis of the island. The other white-looking features, mainly along the east coast of the island, are broad areas of sand dunes made up of sand blown from the nearby beaches. The short, linear, whitish-looking feature towards the middle of the west coast is the airport at Whitemark, the island's largest city. Many smaller islands surround Flinders Island which collectively make up the Furneaux Group.

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