What on Earth?

[HankR]

Anybody know what this is?

cel://SyncOrbit/Sol:Earth/2003-06-04T03:31:36.61321?x=EPh6R1dxFAK5DA&y=zTu5XDLMFg&z=xMslrS0zf1YP&ow=-0.089305&ox=-0.062458&oy=0.976554&oz=0.185650&select=Sol:Earth&fov=45.000000&ts=1.000000&rf=1283&lm=0

- Hank

[MrBatman]

Appears to be part of the Kinghan mountain range in western Manchuria, China.

[HankR]

Yes, that's generally WHERE it is. But WHAT is it? (You may need the hires Blue Marble texture to see what I'm talking about.)

- Hank

[Don. Edwards]

Please don't say the Great Wall of China. According to many atstronauts, it is an urban-ledgend that it can be seen from orbit. It can be seen by satalite imaging but not by the naked eye.

Don.

[ElPelado]

HankR
why dont you put a picture of what you are seeing??
i can not see hires pics and i want to see what you are talking about. can you?? or else send it to my mail.

[selden]

here's a link to a NASA photo of the same region.

http://visibleearth.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/viewrecord?22938

[Calculus]

It looks like a kind of flood (or dam).

[selden]

Unfortunately Hank didn't make it clear if he was asking this as a quiz (because he knows the answer) or if he's puzzled about it.

On the Web I found some very low resolution maps of China. They show terrain, vegitation, etc. They seem to imply it's a desert region in eastern Nei Mongol Zizhiku aka "Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region".

National Geographic's site shows a map of the area at http://plasma.nationalgeographic.com/mapmachine/index.html?id=362&size=large&left=73.62&bottom=18.17&right=134.77&top=53.55

[Don. Edwards]

I think he may be speaking of the gray blob near the coast. Well that looks like a lake, but not a very healthy lake. It looks dead and poluted. It also looks like a big slab of concrete.

Don.

[HankR]

Don is correct; I was asking about that large grey blob. You can see it in the "true color" MODIS image from NASA's Terra satellite that Selden posted a link to. On my hires Blue Marble texture it looks quite strange, with a weird orange squiggle overlaid on the grey blob.

Don is also correct that it's a lake. It's called Lake Khanka. Here's a map.

Evidently it's very shallow throughout (5-6m) which must explain its odd appearance from space.

I did find a NASA space shuttle photo where it actually looks like a lake.

But I'm still wondering about that orange squiggle!?

- Hank

[Don. Edwards]

It could be a bacteria bloom like what happens in red tide. I used live in San Francisco bay area and the bay often turned incredible colors in the summer and when there were bacteria blooms. The waters can turn lavender and then pink and even a very rich mauve color. And on a clear day with the blue of the sky reflected in the mauve colored water it really had an other worldly quality to it.

Don.
.

[jrobert]

Don is correct; I was asking about that large grey blob. You can see it in the "true color" MODIS image from NASA's Terra satellite that Selden posted a link to. On my hires Blue Marble texture it looks quite strange, with a weird orange squiggle overlaid on the grey blob.

Don is also correct that it's a lake. It's called Lake Khanka. Here's a map.

Evidently it's very shallow throughout (5-6m) which must explain its odd appearance from space.

I did find a NASA space shuttle photo where it actually looks like a lake.

But I'm still wondering about that orange squiggle!?

- Hank

What "orange squiggle"?! I don't see any "orange squiggle" and I've looked thru all the images posted in this thread.