Earth from Space - Image Information


LOCATION Direction Photo #: ISS028-E-29679 Date: Aug. 2011
Geographic Region: PAKISTAN
Feature: ISLAMABAD, LAHORE, DELHI, BORDER AT NIGHT


IMAGE
 
India-Pakistan Borderlands at Night

Clusters of yellow lights on the Indo-Gangetic Plain of northern India and northern Pakistan reveal numerous cities both large and small in this astronaut photograph. Of the hundreds of clusters, the largest are the metropolitan areas associated with the capital cities of Islamabad, Pakistan in the foreground and New Delhi, India at the image top--for scale these metropolitan areas are approximately 700 km apart. The lines of major highways connecting the larger cities also stand out. More subtle but still visible at night are the general outlines of the towering and partly cloud-covered Himalayan ranges immediately to the north (image left).

A striking feature of this astronaut photograph is the line of lights, with a distinctly more orange hue, snaking across the central part of the image. It appears to be more continuous and brighter than most highways in the view. This is the fenced and floodlit border zone between the countries of India and Pakistan. The fence is designed to discourage smuggling and arms trafficking between the two countries. A similar fenced zone separates India's eastern border from Bangladesh (not visible).

This image was taken with a 16 mm lens, which provides the wide field of view, as the International Space Station (ISS) was tracking towards the southeast across the subcontinent of India. The ISS crew took the image as part of a continuous series of frames, each frame taken with a 1 second exposure time to maximize light collection - unfortunately, this also causes blurring of some ground features.

The distinct, bright zone above the horizon (visible at image top) is produced by airglow, a phenomena caused by excitation of atoms and molecules high in the atmosphere (above 80 kilometers, or 50 miles altitude) by ultraviolet radiation from the Sun. Part of the ISS Permanent Multipurpose Module, or PMM, and a solar panel array are visible at image right.


Images: All Available Images Low-Resolution 277k
Mission: ISS028  
Roll - Frame: E - 29679
Geographical Name: PAKISTAN  
Features: ISLAMABAD, LAHORE, DELHI, BORDER AT NIGHT  
Center Lat x Lon: 32.5N x 74.5E
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: 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: 1115  
 
Date: 20110821   YYYYMMDD
Time: 192745   GMT HHMMSS
Nadir Lat: 36.9N  
Latitude of suborbital point of spacecraft
Nadir Lon: 72.5E  
Longitude of suborbital point of spacecraft
Sun Azimuth: 5   Clockwise angle in degrees from north to the sun measured at the nadir point
Space Craft Altitude: 202   nautical miles
Sun Elevation: -41   Angle in degrees between the horizon and the sun, measured at the nadir point
Land Views: PLAIN  
Water Views:  
Atmosphere Views:  
Man Made Views:  
City Views: DELHI, ISLAMABAD, NEW DELHI  

Photo is not associated with any sequences


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