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Browse All
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Launch Abort System (LAS) of Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC)
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Las Vegas Flyover from Lands
…
| Title |
Las Vegas Flyover from Landsat 1 |
| Completed |
1999-11-01 |
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Dramatic Evaporation of the
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| Title |
Dramatic Evaporation of the Aral Sea (with dates) |
| Abstract |
Disapearing Water: The Aral Sea Over Time (From 1973 to 2001) A time series is a powerful illustrative tool. Where in the case of Las Vegas we see the direct effects of people on the land, in the case of the Aral Sea, separating the countries of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, we see indirect, but no less dramatic effects on a different part of the world. The Aral Sea is actually not a sea at all. It is an immense lake, a body of fresh water, although that particular description of its contents might now be more a figure of speech than practical fact. In the last thirty years, more than sixty percent of the lake has disappeared. As you'll see in the visualization, the change over time is dramatic. In the 1970s, farmers and state offices opened significant diversions from the rivers supplying water to the lake, sending millions of gallons to irrigate cotton fields and rice paddies. So voluminous were these irrigation sluices that concentrations of salts and minerals began to rise in the shrinking body of water. That change in chemistry has led to staggering alterations in the lake's ecology, causing precipitous drops in the Aral's fish population. A secondary effect of this reduction in the Aral Sea's overall size is the rapid exposure of the lake bed. Powerful winds that blow across this part of Asia routinely pick up and deposit tens of thousands of tons of now exposed soil every year. This has not only contributed to significant reduction in breathable air quality for nearby residents, but also appreciably affected crop yields due to those heavily salt laden particles falling on arable land. In the following sequence of images, we see a series of Landsat scenes taken several years apart. As the years pass, we see the profound reduction in overall area covered by the Aral, and a commensurate increase in land area as the floor of the sea now lies exposed. |
| Completed |
2001-04-19 |
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Dramatic Evaporation of the
…
| Title |
Dramatic Evaporation of the Aral Sea (with dates) |
| Abstract |
Disapearing Water: The Aral Sea Over Time (From 1973 to 2001) A time series is a powerful illustrative tool. Where in the case of Las Vegas we see the direct effects of people on the land, in the case of the Aral Sea, separating the countries of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, we see indirect, but no less dramatic effects on a different part of the world. The Aral Sea is actually not a sea at all. It is an immense lake, a body of fresh water, although that particular description of its contents might now be more a figure of speech than practical fact. In the last thirty years, more than sixty percent of the lake has disappeared. As you'll see in the visualization, the change over time is dramatic. In the 1970s, farmers and state offices opened significant diversions from the rivers supplying water to the lake, sending millions of gallons to irrigate cotton fields and rice paddies. So voluminous were these irrigation sluices that concentrations of salts and minerals began to rise in the shrinking body of water. That change in chemistry has led to staggering alterations in the lake's ecology, causing precipitous drops in the Aral's fish population. A secondary effect of this reduction in the Aral Sea's overall size is the rapid exposure of the lake bed. Powerful winds that blow across this part of Asia routinely pick up and deposit tens of thousands of tons of now exposed soil every year. This has not only contributed to significant reduction in breathable air quality for nearby residents, but also appreciably affected crop yields due to those heavily salt laden particles falling on arable land. In the following sequence of images, we see a series of Landsat scenes taken several years apart. As the years pass, we see the profound reduction in overall area covered by the Aral, and a commensurate increase in land area as the floor of the sea now lies exposed. |
| Completed |
2001-04-19 |
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Dramatic Evaporation of the
…
| Title |
Dramatic Evaporation of the Aral Sea (with dates) |
| Abstract |
Disapearing Water: The Aral Sea Over Time (From 1973 to 2001) A time series is a powerful illustrative tool. Where in the case of Las Vegas we see the direct effects of people on the land, in the case of the Aral Sea, separating the countries of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, we see indirect, but no less dramatic effects on a different part of the world. The Aral Sea is actually not a sea at all. It is an immense lake, a body of fresh water, although that particular description of its contents might now be more a figure of speech than practical fact. In the last thirty years, more than sixty percent of the lake has disappeared. As you'll see in the visualization, the change over time is dramatic. In the 1970s, farmers and state offices opened significant diversions from the rivers supplying water to the lake, sending millions of gallons to irrigate cotton fields and rice paddies. So voluminous were these irrigation sluices that concentrations of salts and minerals began to rise in the shrinking body of water. That change in chemistry has led to staggering alterations in the lake's ecology, causing precipitous drops in the Aral's fish population. A secondary effect of this reduction in the Aral Sea's overall size is the rapid exposure of the lake bed. Powerful winds that blow across this part of Asia routinely pick up and deposit tens of thousands of tons of now exposed soil every year. This has not only contributed to significant reduction in breathable air quality for nearby residents, but also appreciably affected crop yields due to those heavily salt laden particles falling on arable land. In the following sequence of images, we see a series of Landsat scenes taken several years apart. As the years pass, we see the profound reduction in overall area covered by the Aral, and a commensurate increase in land area as the floor of the sea now lies exposed. |
| Completed |
2001-04-19 |
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Dramatic Evaporation of the
…
| Title |
Dramatic Evaporation of the Aral Sea (with dates) |
| Abstract |
Disapearing Water: The Aral Sea Over Time (From 1973 to 2001) A time series is a powerful illustrative tool. Where in the case of Las Vegas we see the direct effects of people on the land, in the case of the Aral Sea, separating the countries of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, we see indirect, but no less dramatic effects on a different part of the world. The Aral Sea is actually not a sea at all. It is an immense lake, a body of fresh water, although that particular description of its contents might now be more a figure of speech than practical fact. In the last thirty years, more than sixty percent of the lake has disappeared. As you'll see in the visualization, the change over time is dramatic. In the 1970s, farmers and state offices opened significant diversions from the rivers supplying water to the lake, sending millions of gallons to irrigate cotton fields and rice paddies. So voluminous were these irrigation sluices that concentrations of salts and minerals began to rise in the shrinking body of water. That change in chemistry has led to staggering alterations in the lake's ecology, causing precipitous drops in the Aral's fish population. A secondary effect of this reduction in the Aral Sea's overall size is the rapid exposure of the lake bed. Powerful winds that blow across this part of Asia routinely pick up and deposit tens of thousands of tons of now exposed soil every year. This has not only contributed to significant reduction in breathable air quality for nearby residents, but also appreciably affected crop yields due to those heavily salt laden particles falling on arable land. In the following sequence of images, we see a series of Landsat scenes taken several years apart. As the years pass, we see the profound reduction in overall area covered by the Aral, and a commensurate increase in land area as the floor of the sea now lies exposed. |
| Completed |
2001-04-19 |
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Floods in Southern Spain
| Title |
Floods in Southern Spain |
| Description |
Light blue pools of standing water show where the Guadalquiver River has overflowed into the Las Marismas marshlands in an annual flood event. Las Marismas in Southwestern Spain was once a bay of the Atlantic Ocean. Over thousands of year, the Guadalquiver River carried sand into the bay. The eventual accumulation blocked the entrance to the bay except for the small opening through which the river itself spills into the ocean. The bay dried into a vast, salty marshland, which is covered with reeds. Until recently, the marshlands flooded annually. The floods were controlled as water was diverted from the Guadalquiver River for agriculture and drinking water, and Las Marismas began to dry. In 1990, the area became an UNESCO World Heritage Site. The Spanish government has begun efforts to preserve the marshlands by allowing the annual floods to continue. The former bay is now one of the more important natural areas in Southern Europe, particularly for migrating birds. Most notably, Las Marismas is home to a large flamingo population. This false-color Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov ] (MODIS) image pair shows Las Marismas on November 25, 2003 during the annual flood, and on September 12 before the floods began. In the flood image, taken by the Aqua [ http://aqua.nasa.gov/ ] satellite, lighter blue plumes along the coast show where sediment is spilling into the Atlantic Ocean. The preflood image was captured by the Terra [ http://terra.nasa.gov/ ] satellite. The ancient Spanish city, Seville lies on the banks of the Guadalquivir River to the northeast of the marshlands, just beyond the area shown in these images. The high-resolution images provided above are at MODIS?s maximum spatial resolution of 250 meters per pixel. Image courtesy Jesse Allen, based on data from the MODIS Rapid Response Team [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov ] at NASA GSFC |
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Floods in Southern Spain
| Title |
Floods in Southern Spain |
| Description |
Light blue pools of standing water show where the Guadalquiver River has overflowed into the Las Marismas marshlands in an annual flood event. Las Marismas in Southwestern Spain was once a bay of the Atlantic Ocean. Over thousands of year, the Guadalquiver River carried sand into the bay. The eventual accumulation blocked the entrance to the bay except for the small opening through which the river itself spills into the ocean. The bay dried into a vast, salty marshland, which is covered with reeds. Until recently, the marshlands flooded annually. The floods were controlled as water was diverted from the Guadalquiver River for agriculture and drinking water, and Las Marismas began to dry. In 1990, the area became an UNESCO World Heritage Site. The Spanish government has begun efforts to preserve the marshlands by allowing the annual floods to continue. The former bay is now one of the more important natural areas in Southern Europe, particularly for migrating birds. Most notably, Las Marismas is home to a large flamingo population. This false-color Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov ] (MODIS) image pair shows Las Marismas on November 25, 2003 during the annual flood, and on September 12 before the floods began. In the flood image, taken by the Aqua [ http://aqua.nasa.gov/ ] satellite, lighter blue plumes along the coast show where sediment is spilling into the Atlantic Ocean. The preflood image was captured by the Terra [ http://terra.nasa.gov/ ] satellite. The ancient Spanish city, Seville lies on the banks of the Guadalquivir River to the northeast of the marshlands, just beyond the area shown in these images. The high-resolution images provided above are at MODIS?s maximum spatial resolution of 250 meters per pixel. Image courtesy Jesse Allen, based on data from the MODIS Rapid Response Team [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov ] at NASA GSFC |
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Floods in Southern Spain
| Title |
Floods in Southern Spain |
| Description |
Light blue pools of standing water show where the Guadalquiver River has overflowed into the Las Marismas marshlands in an annual flood event. Las Marismas in Southwestern Spain was once a bay of the Atlantic Ocean. Over thousands of year, the Guadalquiver River carried sand into the bay. The eventual accumulation blocked the entrance to the bay except for the small opening through which the river itself spills into the ocean. The bay dried into a vast, salty marshland, which is covered with reeds. Until recently, the marshlands flooded annually. The floods were controlled as water was diverted from the Guadalquiver River for agriculture and drinking water, and Las Marismas began to dry. In 1990, the area became an UNESCO World Heritage Site. The Spanish government has begun efforts to preserve the marshlands by allowing the annual floods to continue. The former bay is now one of the more important natural areas in Southern Europe, particularly for migrating birds. Most notably, Las Marismas is home to a large flamingo population. This false-color Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov ] (MODIS) image pair shows Las Marismas on November 25, 2003 during the annual flood, and on September 12 before the floods began. In the flood image, taken by the Aqua [ http://aqua.nasa.gov/ ] satellite, lighter blue plumes along the coast show where sediment is spilling into the Atlantic Ocean. The preflood image was captured by the Terra [ http://terra.nasa.gov/ ] satellite. The ancient Spanish city, Seville lies on the banks of the Guadalquivir River to the northeast of the marshlands, just beyond the area shown in these images. The high-resolution images provided above are at MODIS?s maximum spatial resolution of 250 meters per pixel. Image courtesy Jesse Allen, based on data from the MODIS Rapid Response Team [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov ] at NASA GSFC |
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Heatwave in the Western Unit
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| Title |
Heatwave in the Western United States |
| Description |
The oppressive heat that crept over parts of the western United States during the first few days of July 2007 [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=14380 ] took hold of the entire West during the week of July 4 through July 11. Deep red tones blanket every western state in this land surface temperature image, an indication that temperatures were warmer than in previous years. The image was made with data collected by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov ]) on NASA's Terra [ http://terra.nasa.gov/ ] satellite and shows temperatures recorded between July 4 and July 11, 2007, compared to the average of temperatures observed during the same period in 2000, 2001, and 2002. Areas that are warmer than during that three-year period are red, while cooler areas are blue. Triple-digit temperatures broke or matched records from Las Vegas, Nevada, to Great Falls, Montana, during this period. In this image, a cluster of red-black over eastern Washington, northern Idaho, and eastern Montana indicates that these regions experienced much warmer temperatures than in previous years. Western South Dakota (the Black Hills region) was also exceptionally warm. On the other end of the scale, Texas was much cooler than it had been in 2000, 2001, and 2002. Heavy rains pounded Texas on and off throughout this period, contributing to wide-spread flooding. [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=14363 ] You can download a global KMZ file of Land Surface Temperature anomaly [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/Images/kansas_ast_2007187.kmz ] suitable for use with Google Earth. [ http://earth.google.com/ ] NASA image created by Jesse Allen, using data obtained courtesy of the MODIS Land Processes [ http://modis-land.gsfc.nasa.gov/ ] team. |
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Heatwave in the Western Unit
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| Title |
Heatwave in the Western United States |
| Description |
Extreme heat lingered over much of the western United States in early July 2007. Temperatures soared to triple digits, meeting or breaking records from Las Vegas, Nevada, to Great Falls, Montana, said news reports. The oppressive heat contributed to creating prime fire conditions, so that, when dry thunderstorms (lightning storms accompanied by little or no rain) rolled through on July 7, lightning sparked dozens of fast-moving wildfires. [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=14358 ] This image, created from data collected by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov ]) on NASA's Terra [ http://terra.nasa.gov/ ] satellite from June 26 though July 3, 2007, shows land surface temperatures compared to average temperatures observed during the same period in 2000, 2001, and 2002. Deep red across the Southwest and the Intermountain West indicate that temperatures were much higher than they were in 2000-2002. The Southeast also experienced warmer temperatures. Northern California, Oregon, and Washington appear to be cooler than in previous years, as indicated by the blue tones. The heat wave started mid-way through the week-long period shown in this image. While temperatures may have soared at the end of the period, cooler temperatures earlier in the week dominate the signal. Land surface temperatures from July 4-11 [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=14393 ] show that these areas warmed significantly the following week. The Southern Plains are dark blue where temperatures were much cooler than they had been in previous years. During this period, torrential rains drenched the region, causing wide-spread flooding in Texas and Oklahoma [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=14363 ] and in Kansas and Missouri. [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=14383 ] The gray region over Kansas and Oklahoma is an area in which MODIS could not record the land's temperature because of perpetual cloud cover during the week-long period. NASA image created by Jesse Allen, using data obtained courtesy of the MODIS Land Processes [ http://modis-land.gsfc.nasa.gov/ ] team. |
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Heavy Rain Floods Panama
| Title |
Heavy Rain Floods Panama |
| Description |
Beginning on November 22, 2006, a major stationary front (boundary between two air masses with different characteristics) released very heavy, sustained rain over Central Panama, flooding the Rio Indio to the west of Lago Gatun and the Panama Canal. The floods caused at least eight deaths, collapsed bridges, and cut off communities, reported The Washington Post. This image shows the intense rainfall that generated the floods. The analysis was produced by the Multi-satellite Precipitation Analysis project at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, based in part on observations from the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM [ http://trmm.gsfc.nasa.gov/ ]) satellite collected between November 20 and November 28, 2006. The rain fell in fell in a classic "bull's-eye" pattern, with progressively lighter rainfall radiating out from the heaviest rainfall (shown in darker red). The heaviest rain is centered over the Rio Indio watershed west of the Panama Canal. Similarly high rainfall totals for the period are centered over the Caribbean and northern Colombia. Swollen rivers, roiling with mud from runoff and landslides, dumped a plume of sediment into the Caribbean, which can be seen sweeping eastward from the flood region in a photo-like satellite image taken by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov ]) on NASA's Aqua [ http://aqua.nasa.gov/ ] satellite on November 26, two days after flooding was first reported. Sediment colors the ordinarily dark water aquamarine. Sediment plumes derived from numerous small rivers along the southern (Pacific) side of the isthmus and the Archipelago de Las Perlas are also visible. TRMM image courtesy Hal Pierce (SSAI/NASA GSFC), caption information courtesy Timothy Gubbels (SSAI) and SERVIR [ http://servir.nsstc.nasa.gov/ ]. |
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Fires in the Southwest
| Title |
Fires in the Southwest |
| Description |
Fire season in the U.S. West got off to a roaring start in the third week of June 2005. Fires triggered by ?dry? lightning (lightning without rain) sprang up in several Western states and grew explosively in a matter of days. In this image from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA?s Aqua [ http://aqua.nasa.gov ] satellite, fires (outlined in red) are burning in California, Nevada, Utah, and Arizona. Among the largest are the Cave Creek Fire to the northeast of Phoenix, Arizona, the Good Springs Fire in Nevada, to the southwest of Las Vegas, and the Hackberry Fire in California. To read more about these fires, visit the Current Wildland Fire Information [ http://www.nifc.gov/information.html ] Webpage on the National Interagency Fire Center Website. Image courtesy the MODIS Rapid Response Team [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov ], NASA-GSFC |
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Palomar 13's Last Stand
| Title |
Palomar 13's Last Stand |
| Explanation |
Globular [ http://research.amnh.org/~summers/starsplatter/spz/ spz.html ] star cluster Palomar 13 [ http://redshift.home.pipeline.com/palglob.htm ] has roamed the halo [ http://www.limber.org/globs.html ] of our Milky Way Galaxy for the last 12 billion years. The apparently sparse cluster of stars just left of center in this composite color digital image, it is one of the smallest, faintest globular clusters known [ http://www.seds.org/messier/xtra/supp/mw_gc.html ]. (The bright foreground star near bottom is unrelated and creates the spiky imaging artifacts.) Observations spanning forty years indicate that Palomar 13's galactic halo orbit [ http://nedwww.ipac.caltech.edu/level5/ESSAYS/Cudworth/ cudworth.html ] is a highly eccentric one which, every one or two billion years, brings it relatively close to the galactic center. With each close approach to the Milky Way's central regions [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap001106.html ], gravitational tidal forces strip away [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap990225.html ] the delicately bound cluster stars. In fact, detailed present day studies offer evidence for a dramatic end to this dwindling cluster's tidal tug of war. Palomar 13's latest close approach was only about 70 million years ago. But, when Palomar 13 again approaches the galaxy, it could well turn out to be the cluster's last stand [ http://xxx.lanl.gov/abs/astro-ph/0011220 ]. |
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Palomar 13's Last Stand
| Title |
Palomar 13's Last Stand |
| Explanation |
Globular star cluster Palomar 13 [ http://www.seds.org/~spider/spider/MWGC/pal13.html ] has roamed the halo [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap000922.html ] of our Milky Way Galaxy for the last 12 billion years. The apparently sparse cluster [ http://www.astrosurf.com/jwisn/palomar.htm ] of stars just left of center in this composite color digital image, it is one of the smallest, faintest globular clusters known [ http://www.seds.org/messier/xtra/supp/mw_gc.html ]. (The bright foreground star near bottom is unrelated and creates the spiky imaging artifacts.) Observations spanning forty years indicate that Palomar 13's galactic halo orbit [ http://nedwww.ipac.caltech.edu/level5/ESSAYS/Cudworth/ cudworth.html ] is a highly eccentric one which, every one or two billion years, brings it relatively close to the galactic center. With each close approach to the Milky Way's central regions [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap001106.html ], gravitational tidal forces strip away [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap990225.html ] the delicately bound cluster stars. In fact, detailed present day studies offer evidence for a dramatic end to this dwindling cluster's tidal tug of war. Palomar 13's latest close approach was only about 70 million years ago. But, when Palomar 13 again approaches the galaxy, it could well turn out to be the cluster's last stand [ http://xxx.lanl.gov/abs/astro-ph/0011220 ]. |
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Fires in the Southwest: Natu
…
nasa, nasanaturalhazards
Fire season in the U.S. West
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WesternFires.AMOA2005174
| mediatype |
IMAGE |
| mediatype |
image |
| date |
2005-06-23 |
| creator |
NASA -- NASA Image Of The Day |
| identifier |
WesternFires.AMOA2005174 |
|
Heavy Rain Floods Panama: Na
…
nasa, nasanaturalhazards
Beginning on November 22, 20
…
panama_TRM_2006331
| mediatype |
IMAGE |
| mediatype |
image |
| date |
2006-11-27 |
| creator |
NASA -- NASA Image Of The Day |
| identifier |
panama_TRM_2006331 |
|
Floods in Southern Spain: Na
…
nasa, nasanaturalhazards
* eoimages.gsfc.nasa.gov/ima
…
modis_spain_25nov03
| mediatype |
IMAGE |
| mediatype |
image |
| date |
2003-11-25 |
| creator |
NASA -- NASA Image Of The Day |
| identifier |
modis_spain_25nov03 |
|
Floods in Southern Spain: Na
…
nasa, nasanaturalhazards
* eoimages.gsfc.nasa.gov/ima
…
modis_spain_25nov03
| mediatype |
IMAGE |
| mediatype |
image |
| date |
2003-11-25 |
| creator |
NASA -- NASA Image Of The Day |
| identifier |
modis_spain_25nov03 |
|
|
