Earth from Space - Image Description

STS058-109-039 Point Stilo, Italy October 1993
The color infrared image (green vegetation is portrayed as shades of red) accentuates the heavily forested mountainous terrain (center of image), known as the Serre, in the Calabria region of southern Italy. Forest species include firs, beeches, and chestnut trees. Mt. Pecorara, highest peak in the Serre Mountains (4668 feet-1422 meters), is located near the center of the picture. Many scenic gorges have been carved out of the mountains by swift-flowing, short rivers that drain to the southeast into the Ionian Sea (bottom). Part of the narrowest point (22 miles-35 km) in Italy, the isthmus of Marcellinara, can be seen along the north (right) edge of the image. A small section of the Tyrrhenian Sea is visible as a dark feature in the top right corner (upper right). Because of the ruggedness of the terrain this region is sparsely populated. Some clouds are visible just south of Point Stilo (lower left quadrant of the image).

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