Earth from Space - Image Information


LOCATION Direction Photo #: ISS025-E-9858 Date: Oct. 2010
Geographic Region: EGYPT
Feature: AT NIGHT,NILE RIVER DELTA,CAIRO,NILE RIVER,AIRGLOW,TEL-AVIV,CYPRUS


IMAGE
 
Nile River Delta at Night

One of the fascinating aspects of viewing Earth at night is how well the lights show the distribution of people. In this view of Egypt, we see a population almost completely concentrated along the Nile Valley, just a small percentage of the country's land area.

The Nile River and its delta look like a brilliant, long-stemmed flower in this astronaut photograph of the southeastern Mediterranean Sea, as seen from the International Space Station. The Cairo metropolitan area forms a particularly bright base of the flower. The smaller cities and towns within the Nile Delta tend to be hard to see amidst the dense agricultural vegetation during the day. However, these settled areas and the connecting roads between them become clearly visible at night. Likewise, urbanized regions and infrastructure along the Nile River becomes apparent (see also The Great Bend of Nile, Day & Night.)

Another brightly lit region is visible along the eastern coastline of the Mediterranean--the Tel-Aviv metropolitan area in Israel (image right). To the east of Tel-Aviv lies Amman, Jordan. The two major water bodies that define the western and eastern coastlines of the Sinai Peninsula--the Gulf of Suez and the Gulf of Aqaba--are outlined by lights along their coastlines (image lower right). The city lights of Paphos, Limassol, Larnaca, and Nicosia are visible on the island of Cyprus (image top).

Scattered blue-grey clouds cover the Mediterranean Sea and the Sinai, while much of northeastern Africa is cloud-free. A thin yellow-brown band tracing the Earth's curvature at image top is airglow, a faint band of light emission that results from the interaction of atmospheric atoms and molecules with solar radiation at approximately 100 kilometers (60 miles) altitude.


Images: All Available Images Low-Resolution 316k
Mission: ISS025  
Roll - Frame: E - 9858
Geographical Name: EGYPT  
Features: AT NIGHT,NILE RIVER DELTA,CAIRO,NILE RIVER,AIRGLOW,TEL-AVIV,CYPRUS  
Center Lat x Lon: 30.0N x 30.5E
Film Exposure:   N=Normal exposure, U=Under exposed, O=Over exposed, F=out of Focus
Percentage of Cloud Cover-CLDP: 10
 
Camera:: N5
 
Camera Tilt: HO   LO=Low Oblique, HO=High Oblique, NV=Near Vertical
Camera Focal Length: 16  
 
Nadir to Photo Center Direction: NW   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: 451  
 
Date: 20101028   YYYYMMDD
Time: 233848   GMT HHMMSS
Nadir Lat: 22.5N  
Latitude of suborbital point of spacecraft
Nadir Lon: 35.1E  
Longitude of suborbital point of spacecraft
Sun Azimuth: 80   Clockwise angle in degrees from north to the sun measured at the nadir point
Space Craft Altitude: 186   nautical miles
Sun Elevation: -57   Angle in degrees between the horizon and the sun, measured at the nadir point
Land Views: ISLAND, VALLEY  
Water Views: DELTA, GULF, RIVER, SEA  
Atmosphere Views:  
Man Made Views:  
City Views: AMMAN, CAIRO, LIMASSOL, NICOSIA, PAPHOS  

Photo is not associated with any sequences


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