The Red Sea golf resort in Sharm El Sheik, Egypt, where President
Clinton met with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian
Authority President Yasser Arafat, stands out against the desert
landscape in this image acquired on August 25, 2000.
This image of the southern tip of the Sinai Peninsula shows an area
about 30 by 30 kilometers (19 by 19 miles) in the visible and near
infrared wavelength region. Vegetation appears in red. The blue areas in
the water at the top and bottom of the image are coral reefs. The
airport is visible just to the north of the golf resort.
Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER)
is one of five Earth-observing instruments launched December 18, 1999,
on NASA's Terra satellite. ASTER is the only high resolution imaging sensor on
Terra. The primary goal of the ASTER mission is to obtain high-
resolution image data in 14 channels over the entire land surface, as
well as black and white stereo images. With revisit time of between 4
and 16 days, ASTER will provide the capability for repeat coverage of
changing areas on Earth's surface.
The broad spectral coverage and high spectral resolution of ASTER will
provide scientists in numerous disciplines with critical information for
surface mapping, and monitoring dynamic conditions and temporal change.
Example applications are: monitoring glacial advances and retreats,
monitoring potentially active volcanoes, identifying crop stress,
determining cloud morphology and physical properties, wetlands
Evaluation, thermal pollution monitoring, coral reef degradation,
surface temperature mapping of soils and geology, and measuring surface