• MODIS Pic of the Day 30 January 2022

    From Dan Richter@1:317/3 to All on Sun Jan 30 11:00:58 2022
    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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