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  Image: Geographic Location Direction Photo #: ISS061-E-117671 Date: Jan. 2020
Geographic Region: USA-HAWAII
Feature: NI'IHAU, HALALI'I LAKE, HALULU LAKE, PU'UWAI VILLAGE

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  Ni'ihau

The Hawaiian Islands are split into two groups: the populated, eastern land masses are the Windward Islands and the uninhabited western islands are named the Northwestern Islands. The westernmost and smallest of the Windward group is Ni'ihau, a privately-owned isle nicknamed the "Forbidden Island." An astronaut on the International Space Station (ISS) recently took this photograph of it.

Ni'hau has a semiarid climate and low yearly rainfall. Much of the precipitation headed toward the island is captured by the high mountains of its sister island to the east, Kaua'i. Ni'ihau receives an average of 56 centimeters (22 inches) of rain per year, a small fraction of the Windward Island average (//rainfall.geography.hawaii.edu/rainfall.html).

Despite a dearth of rain, Ni'ihau is home to two of the larger bodies of water in Hawaii. The spring-supported Halulu Lake is the largest body of water in Hawaii - at least it is when neighboring Halali'i Lake is dry. Halali'i is an ephemeral lake, so depending on the season and rainfall, it can either dwarf Halulu and become Hawaii's largest or it can be a dry lakebed dotted with an occasional pond. In exceptionally low precipitation years, both lakes can be mostly dry. The reddish hue of both lakebeds may be a result of the deposition of upland soils from the iron-rich volcanic rock that forms most of the island.

The island was purchased from the Kingdom of Hawaii in the 1860s. Over the decades, its owners have undertaken a massive tree-planting effort to try to offset the lack of rainfall and to provide cover for the 170 inhabitants of the island, all of whom live in Pu'uwai Village.

 
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Images: All Available Images Low-Resolution 422k
Mission: ISS061  
Roll - Frame: E - 117671
Geographical Name: USA-HAWAII  
Features: NI'IHAU, HALALI'I LAKE, HALULU LAKE, PU'UWAI VILLAGE  
Center Lat x Lon: 21.9N x 160.1W
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: 31   LO=Low Oblique, HO=High Oblique, NV=Near Vertical
Camera Focal Length: 800  
 
Nadir to Photo Center Direction: SE   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: 20200103   YYYYMMDD
Time: 202007   GMT HHMMSS
Nadir Lat: 23.7N  
Latitude of suborbital point of spacecraft
Nadir Lon: 161.5W  
Longitude of suborbital point of spacecraft
Sun Azimuth: 139   Clockwise angle in degrees from north to the sun measured at the nadir point
Space Craft Altitude: 223   nautical miles
Sun Elevation: 31   Angle in degrees between the horizon and the sun, measured at the nadir point
Land Views: ISLAND, ISLANDS, MOUNTAINS, UPLAND  
Water Views: LAKE  
Atmosphere Views:  
Man Made Views:  
City Views:  
Photo is not associated with any sequences


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