Earth from Space - Image Description

STS066-157-072 Udskaya Bay, Russia November 1994
Several rivers enter the western end of Udskaya Bay along the cold, sparsely populated east coast of Russia. While most of this landscape is snow-covered mountains (with peak elevations ranging from 3000 feet - 915 meters to 5000 feet - 1524 meters), the Uda River Valley with its meandering, multi-braided channels has built a small delta along the western fringe of the bay. The drainage pattern around the periphery of the bay is very pronounced with several well-entrenched winding streams cutting through numerous valleys. The smaller Torom River Valley is visible as it drains northward and empties into the south side of the bay. A multitude of paralleling pieces of sea ice (linear, white, east-west aligned features along the extreme western margin of the bay - center of image) have already formed in this late autumn image. Smaller ice fragments (white flecks) are seen forming towards the center of Udskaya Bay.

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