Return to Earth From Space Home
Earth from Space logo Image Information Earth from Space logo

Display a Screen Layout for Printing

IMAGE: gray corner       IMAGE: gray corner
  Image: Geographic Location Direction Photo #: ISS043-E-101645 Date: Apr. 2015
Geographic Region: INDIA
Feature: RANN OF KUTCH, CANALS, AGRICULTURE

Ordering information for space photography
 
IMAGE: gray corner     IMAGE: gray corner

Image: gray corner     Image: gray corner
  View Low-Resolution Image  
  Salt ponds, Rann of Kutch, India

The Rann of Kutch is a long, narrow salt flat that stretches from the Arabian Sea coast 325 km (200 mi) inland in an almost straight line (rann comes from a Hindi word meaning desert). Situated in westernmost India along the Pakistani border, the Rann is famous for its marshy salt flats which become snow white (image lower left) after the shallow monsoon flood water dries up. Angular evaporating ponds along the floor of the Rann (image top right) are the heart of a major salt-producing industry. The straight lines across much of the image are ditches dug to help control the flow of salt-rich water. Scale is difficult to judge in this landscape of abstract shapes--here the image width represents 16 km (10 mi), illustrating the great extent of the drainage ditches. The light green tint lower right is very shallow water from a small river draining dark-toned farmland (image top right).

This inhospitable but resource-rich lowland--it also contains natural gas deposits--has been at the center of a border dispute between India and Pakistan.

Thousands of years ago the Rann was a shallow arm of the Arabian Sea. Land uplift caused by tectonic forces then closed off the connection with the sea, creating a vast lake that was still navigable during the time of Alexander the Great.
 
Image: gray corner     Image: gray corner

Images: All Available Images Low-Resolution 219k
Mission: ISS043  
Roll - Frame: E - 101645
Geographical Name: INDIA  
Features: RANN OF KUTCH, CANALS, AGRICULTURE  
Center Lat x Lon: 23.9N x 69.6E
Film Exposure:   N=Normal exposure, U=Under exposed, O=Over exposed, F=out of Focus
Percentage of Cloud Cover-CLDP: 10
 
Camera: N6
 
Camera Tilt: 28   LO=Low Oblique, HO=High Oblique, NV=Near Vertical
Camera Focal Length: 1150  
 
Nadir to Photo Center Direction: W   The direction from the nadir to the center point, N=North, S=South, E=East, W=West
Stereo?:   Y=Yes there is an adjacent picture of the same area, N=No there isn't
Orbit Number:  
 
Date: 20150411   YYYYMMDD
Time: 110637   GMT HHMMSS
Nadir Lat: 23.6N  
Latitude of suborbital point of spacecraft
Nadir Lon: 71.5E  
Longitude of suborbital point of spacecraft
Sun Azimuth: 265   Clockwise angle in degrees from north to the sun measured at the nadir point
Space Craft Altitude: 217   nautical miles
Sun Elevation: 33   Angle in degrees between the horizon and the sun, measured at the nadir point
Land Views:  
Water Views:  
Atmosphere Views:  
Man Made Views:  
City Views:  
Photo is not associated with any sequences


NASA
Home Page
JSC
Home Page
JSC Digital
Image Collection
Earth Science &
Remote Sensing

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