Stuart Leiderman leiderman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: leiderman fwd: from space, "where's haiti?"
This week's featured NASA Earth Observatory image, a weekly series, is
from the International Space Station looking down at the Caribbean
earlier this spring. The caption identifies the land masses as "the
Bahamas, Cuba, Jamaica, and southern Florida." What I see, however, is
not "Jamaica" but that little-known "Haiti," specifically the western
tips of its northern peninsula, La Gonave Island and southern peninsula.
See what you think, and then write our friends a NASA to ask for a
correction/addition. The astronaut-photographer may have even taken
another image that shows the whole country.
In the larger sense,
https://eol.jsc.nasa.gov/SearchPhotos/ShowQueryResults-TextTable.pl?results=160082581876241
tabulates more than eleven hundred high-resolution space images of
Haiti made over more than fifty years. There's a slider on the right
side to scroll through the set. Some are good enough to make a
geography class for Haitian children, or a nicely-illustrated 2021
calendar. See what you think.
= = =
https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/147296/cupola-over-the-caribbean?src=eoa-iotd
CUPOLA OVER THE CARIBBEAN
https://eoimages.gsfc.nasa.gov/images/imagerecords/147000/147296/iss062e117852.jpg
https://eoimages.gsfc.nasa.gov/images/imagerecords/147000/147296/iss062e117852_lrg.jpg
March 30, 2020
Clouds trace out the islands of the Caribbean Sea in this photo taken by
an astronaut from inside the Cupola on the International Space
Station. Beyond the solar arrays and the docked Progress resupply
vehicle, the multi-toned waters of the Caribbean and the Atlantic
Ocean frame the Bahamas, Cuba, Jamaica, and southern Florida.
The bright turquoise water around the Bahamas contrasts sharply with the
darker blues of the open ocean. From above, the contrast allows us to
see the Tongue of the Ocean, a submarine canyon descending nearly
4300 meters (14,000 feet) below the surrounding shallow bank. The
variable water colors can be explained by the underwater topography and
water depth (bathymetry) and how it leads to varying light
absorption and reflection. In the clear and shallow waters of the
Caribbean, more sunlight reflects off the sand and reef surfaces,
causing the water to appear lighter in color. The shallow water that
surrounds the Bahamas and outlines the Tongue of the Ocean comprise the
Great and Little Bahama Banks.
This photo was captured on a peaceful, if somewhat cloudy, spring day.
But in the summertime, this region is known colloquially as “hurricane
alley.” Tropical cyclones that form off the coast of Africa and
mature in warm Atlantic waters frequently first encounter land at
these islands. Unfortunately for residents, the number of named storms
in the Atlantic has been increasing in recent years.
Astronaut photograph ISS062-E-117852 was acquired on March 30,
2020, with a Nikon D5 digital camera using a 16 millimeter lens and is
provided by the ISS Crew Earth Observations Facility and the Earth
Science and Remote Sensing Unit, Johnson Space Center. The image was
taken by a member of the Expedition 62 crew. The image has been
cropped and enhanced to improve contrast, and lens artifacts have been
removed. The International Space Station Program supports the
laboratory as part of the ISS National Lab to help astronauts take
pictures of Earth that will be of the greatest value to scientists and
the public, and to make those images freely available on the Internet.
Additional images taken by astronauts and cosmonauts can be viewed at
the NASA/JSC Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth. Caption by
Alex Stoken, Jacobs, JETS Contract at NASA-JSC._
Haiti Historical Series from NASA Manned Space Flights - 1131 images
https://eol.jsc.nasa.gov/SearchPhotos/ShowQueryResults-TextTable.pl?results=160082581876241
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