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  Image: Geographic Location Direction Photo #: ISS054-E-53958 Date: Feb. 2018
Geographic Region: FRANCE
Feature: STRAIT OF DOVER, CALAIS, ENGLISH CHANNEL

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  Strait of Dover

An astronaut aboard the International Space Station shot this photograph of the Strait of Dover, the narrowest part of the English Channel.

Over the years, adventurous swimmers have attempted to swim the 35-kilometers (21 miles) from Dover, England, to the French coastline at Cap Gris-Nez. Swimmers commonly follow a curved path due to tidal currents, making the actual route longer than the projected straight-line distance between the coasts. This challenge can take swimmers 7 to 20 hours to complete one-way, and few have chosen to swim back.

Dover is famous for its White Cliffs, a section of coastline with abrupt cliffs made of a stark white chalk. The same geologic formation is found across the channel at Cap Blanc-Nez, indicating that the land surface between the two coasts was once continuous. Erosion of this surface over hundreds of thousands of years, followed by rising sea levels in the past 10,000 years, created the English Channel.

Beneath the Strait of Dover, the undersea Channel Tunnel allows trains and cars to quickly travel from southern England to northern France. This helps decrease maritime traffic, as more than 400 commercial vessels cross the Strait daily. Dozens of ships are visible in this photograph.


 
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Images: All Available Images Low-Resolution 494k
Mission: ISS054  
Roll - Frame: E - 53958
Geographical Name: FRANCE  
Features: STRAIT OF DOVER, CALAIS, ENGLISH CHANNEL  
Center Lat x Lon: 51.0N x 1.6E
Film Exposure:   N=Normal exposure, U=Under exposed, O=Over exposed, F=out of Focus
Percentage of Cloud Cover-CLDP: 10
 
Camera: N8
 
Camera Tilt: HO   LO=Low Oblique, HO=High Oblique, NV=Near Vertical
Camera Focal Length: 200  
 
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: 20180224   YYYYMMDD
Time: 084450   GMT HHMMSS
Nadir Lat: 47.5N  
Latitude of suborbital point of spacecraft
Nadir Lon: 5W  
Longitude of suborbital point of spacecraft
Sun Azimuth: 121   Clockwise angle in degrees from north to the sun measured at the nadir point
Space Craft Altitude: 214   nautical miles
Sun Elevation: 14   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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