Earth from Space - Image Information


LOCATION Direction Photo #: ISS033-E-14856 Date: Oct. 2012
Geographic Region: QATAR
Feature: QATAR AT NIGHT, BAHRAIN AT NIGHT


IMAGE
 
Qatar, Persian Gulf, at Night

Night lights can be very revealing regarding the distribution of people on the landscape. Here the lights of Qatar show the precise demographic geography of the country. The brightest group at image center shows the capital city Doha with the neighboring smaller ports of Ad-Dahira and Umm Sa'id to the north and south, respectively. Even highways and their relative importance can be discerned. Highways are clearly visible leading from the capital west to the Dukhan oil fields, to Saudi Arabia, and to the north of the country--where, judging by the lack of night lights, the population is very low. The relatively minor coast road between the oil fields and the Saudi frontier also stands out. This kind of highly informative human geographic detail is very difficult to discern in daylight images, in which even larger cities, especially in deserts, are hard to see.

Almost the entire island nation of Bahrain appears at lower left, with its capital city Manama nearly as bright as the lights of Doha. The difference in light intensity reflects a difference in population--Doha has 1.45 million inhabitants, while the very dense Manama metro area has a population of 1.2 million.

While some night views are highly informative about a landscape, they can also be difficult and confusing to locate. Astronauts learn to recognize where they are at night by flying over populated places repeatedly, even though coastlines--one of their best geographic indicators--are generally lost to view because water surfaces and unpopulated land surfaces look the same without illumination (such as from a full moon). Thus the thumb-shaped Qatari peninsula, so well-known in Middle Eastern geography, cannot be discerned at all in this night image.


Images: All Available Images Low-Resolution 158k
Mission: ISS033  
Roll - Frame: E - 14856
Geographical Name: QATAR  
Features: QATAR AT NIGHT, BAHRAIN AT NIGHT  
Center Lat x Lon: 25.0N x 51.5E
Film Exposure:   N=Normal exposure, U=Under exposed, O=Over exposed, F=out of Focus
Percentage of Cloud Cover-CLDP: 0
 
Camera:: N5
 
Camera Tilt: 24   LO=Low Oblique, HO=High Oblique, NV=Near Vertical
Camera Focal Length: 70  
 
Nadir to Photo Center Direction: N   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: 20121013   YYYYMMDD
Time: 222750   GMT HHMMSS
Nadir Lat: 23.4N  
Latitude of suborbital point of spacecraft
Nadir Lon: 51.6E  
Longitude of suborbital point of spacecraft
Sun Azimuth: 69   Clockwise angle in degrees from north to the sun measured at the nadir point
Space Craft Altitude: 216   nautical miles
Sun Elevation: -56   Angle in degrees between the horizon and the sun, measured at the nadir point
Land Views: COAST, ISLAND, MOON, PENINSULA  
Water Views: GULF  
Atmosphere Views:  
Man Made Views:  
City Views: DOHA, MANAMA  

Photo is not associated with any sequences


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