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  Image: Geographic Location Direction Photo #: ISS052-E-39523 Date: Aug. 2017
Geographic Region: BRAZIL
Feature: AMAZON RIVER, SUN GLINT

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  Amazon Meanders in Sunglint

An astronaut aboard the International Space Station (ISS) focused a camera on the brilliant reflection of sunlight —sunglint—on three sweeping meanders of the Amazon River. The numerous thinner lines show the many remnants of prior channels of this highly mobile river. The reflected sunlight even shows numerous ponds (top left) in this very rainy part of the world. These ponds are usually not visible due to the dense forest cover in central Amazonia.

The Amazon River is the largest by water volume and sediment discharge in the world. The scale of the meanders here are immense compared with other large rivers. The amplitude from the top of the meander to the lower curves of the neighboring meanders is 18 kilometers (11 miles). Average meander amplitudes on the Mississippi River near New Orleans measure 6 kilometers (4 miles).

And the meander amplitude is increasing along this stretch of the river. Images from the late 1960s show the meanders as less winding. Since then, the loops have expanded, eroding the outside edges. Measurements taken from a 1969 photo and from this one show erosion has pushed the outer banks out by more than 1.2 kilometers (0.75 miles), while depositing new sediment on the inside of the meander loops.


 
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Images: All Available Images Low-Resolution 460k
Mission: ISS052  
Roll - Frame: E - 39523
Geographical Name: BRAZIL  
Features: AMAZON RIVER, SUN GLINT  
Center Lat x Lon: 2.7S x 67.1W
Film Exposure:   N=Normal exposure, U=Under exposed, O=Over exposed, F=out of Focus
Percentage of Cloud Cover-CLDP: 25
 
Camera: N6
 
Camera Tilt: 20   LO=Low Oblique, HO=High Oblique, NV=Near Vertical
Camera Focal Length: 500  
 
Nadir to Photo Center Direction: NE   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: 20170809   YYYYMMDD
Time: 155256   GMT HHMMSS
Nadir Lat: 3.8S  
Latitude of suborbital point of spacecraft
Nadir Lon: 67.8W  
Longitude of suborbital point of spacecraft
Sun Azimuth: 29   Clockwise angle in degrees from north to the sun measured at the nadir point
Space Craft Altitude: 220   nautical miles
Sun Elevation: 68   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


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