January 30, 2022 - The Florida Straits
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Florida, Bahamas, Cuba
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On January 25, 2022, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer
(MODIS) on board NASA’s Terra satellite acquired a true-color image of
the deep blue waters of the Florida Straits colored in stunning
contrast to the peacock-tinted shallows off of the United States,
Bahamas, and Cuba. The turquoise tones belong to shallows around the
Florida Keys (north), the Great Bahama Bank (east), the Gulf of
Batabano south of Cuba, and Bahama’s Cal Say Bank, which sits in the
center of the image.
The Florida Straits (also known as the Straits of Florida or Florida
Strait) stretches about 100 miles south-southeast of Florida, lying
roughly between the Florida Keys and Cuba and between the Gulf of
Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean. The strong Florida Current, considered
the initial part of the Gulf Stream, runs through the Florida Strait.
It passes close to the Florida coastline, only 10 miles offshore of
Miami.
Sitting within the edges of the Florida Straits, the Cal Say Bank is
separated from Cuba by the Nicholas Channel and from the Great Bahama
Bank, off of Andros Island, Bahamas, by the Santaren Channel. The Cal
Say Bank is a large, uninhabited atoll made up of about 100 islands and
about 484 hectares of land. It is an extremely important area for
breeding seabirds, including the world’s largest population of
Audubon’s Shearwaters. Other significant populations include Sooty
Terns, Bridled Terns, and Brown Noddies. Loggerhead sea turtles also
breed on the islands of Cal Say Bank. Some of the islands also host
populations of black rats or Norway rats, which are not native to the
islands. According to a survey done completed in 2015, seabirds were
not found in large numbers on the islands where the rats lived.
Image Facts
Satellite: Terra
Date Acquired: 1/25/2022
Resolutions: 1km (312 KB), 500m (842.3 KB), 250m (1.9 MB)
Bands Used: 1,4,3
Image Credit: MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC
https://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov/gallery/individual.php?db_date=2022-01-30
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