Earth from Space - Image Description

STS073-706-009 Charleston, South Carolina, U.S.A. October 1995
The highly reflective central business district of downtown Charleston is discernible on a peninsula between two rivers--the Cooper River to the east and the Ashley River to the northwest. This synoptic photograph of Charleston and its coastal environs provides a physical picture of the wetlands that extend northeast-southwest, creating tidal marshes and a swampy landscape in a narrow belt along the coast. The darker terrain east of the Cooper River is Francis Marion National Forest. The active coastal currents are evidenced by the mixing water patterns along the coast and the plume that extends seaward from Charleston Harbor.

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