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  Image: Geographic Location Direction Photo #: ISS045-E-56257 Date: Oct. 2015
Geographic Region: AUSTRALIA
Feature: GREAT BARRIER REEF

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  Great Barrier Reef, Queensland, Australia

These three reefs in Australia's Great Barrier Reef (GBR) were photographed by an astronaut aboard the International Space Station. Taken with a powerful lens, this image shows 15 km (10 miles) of the 2300 km (1700 miles) of the GBR. Reefs are easy to find from space, because iridescent blues of shallow water in lagoons contrast at a sharp line with the dark blue tone of deep water. The GBR is the largest reef system on Earth with more than 3000 separate reefs and coral cays. It is one of the most complex natural ecosystems, with 600 types of corals, and thousands of species of animals, from tiny plankton to whales.

Corals look like plants but are in fact colonies of very small animals known as coral polyps--closely related to jellyfish. The color differences in the image relate to different habitats for coral growth within the reef, habitats strongly related to two sources of energy and nutrient. Agitated water, as in the surface zone where waves break against the reef, provides more plankton nutrient to the corals than still water. The best developed reef crests face the open ocean (right side of the image) for this reason--especially reefs like these that lie 75 km (45 miles) from the Queensland coastline, far from land sources of nutrient. The dark narrow channels between the lagoons also allow deeper, nutrient-rich water to reach the reef-crest corals. But waves are also destructive, so that only robust types of coral live within the breaker zone.

The other source of energy is the sun which is needed by symbiotic, single-cell organisms that provide most of the nutrient for coral growth. The dark blues in the image are zones where too little light penetrates. Tropical corals disappear where the light fades away around 60 meters (200 feet) below the sea surface. By contrast, shallow water within the lagoons (especially at image center) has the strongest light supply and displays numerous patches of coral. Although lagoons are protected from the full force of waves they lack the plankton supply from constant wave agitation. This limits the amount of living coral within the lagoon, as seen in the empty zones. But the lagoons have so many micro-habitats that they boast the greatest number of species in the reef ecosystem, with mollusks, worms and crustaceans often dominating the visible fauna.

The GBR is now protected in a Marine Park. The three reefs captured here--part of the Planning Area for the Whitsunday group of islands 900 km (560 miles) north of Brisbane in Queensland--have different types of protected status. The reef at image top left is a Habitat Protection zone (controlling potentially damaging activities such as trawling), the reef at image lower left is a Conservation Park (limited fishing), and the reef at the center of the image as a Marine National Park (no fishing or collecting.)
 
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Images: All Available Images Low-Resolution 293k
Mission: ISS045  
Roll - Frame: E - 56257
Geographical Name: AUSTRALIA  
Features: GREAT BARRIER REEF  
Center Lat x Lon: 19.7S x 149.2E
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: 33   LO=Low Oblique, HO=High Oblique, NV=Near Vertical
Camera Focal Length: 1150  
 
Nadir to Photo Center Direction: S   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: 20151012   YYYYMMDD
Time: 022452   GMT HHMMSS
Nadir Lat: 17.4S  
Latitude of suborbital point of spacecraft
Nadir Lon: 149.6E  
Longitude of suborbital point of spacecraft
Sun Azimuth: 317   Clockwise angle in degrees from north to the sun measured at the nadir point
Space Craft Altitude: 218   nautical miles
Sun Elevation: 77   Angle in degrees between the horizon and the sun, measured at the nadir point
Land Views:  
Water Views: LAGOON, OCEAN, REEF, SEA, WAVE  
Atmosphere Views:  
Man Made Views:  
City Views:  
Photo is not associated with any sequences


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