The atoll of Wake Island is located in the central Pacific
Ocean, approximately 4,000 kilometers (2,500 miles) to the west-southwest of
Hawaii and 2,400 kilometers (1,500 miles) to the northwest of Guam. In addition
to Wake Island, the atoll includes the smaller Peale Island and Wilkes Island,
for a total land surface area of 6.5 square kilometers (2.5 square miles). Like
many atolls in the Pacific, the islands and associated reefs formed around a
submerged volcano. The lagoon in the center of the islands marks the
approximate location of the summit crater.
Wake Island was annexed by the United States of America in 1899,
and it became an important military and commercial airfield by 1935. Following
the bombing of Pearl Harbor and the mutual declaration of war between the U.S.
and the Empire of Japan in 1941, the atoll was occupied by Japanese forces
until the end of World War II in the Pacific (1945). Today, the civil
administration of the atoll is the responsibility of the U.S. Department of the
Interior, while the U.S. Air Force and Army maintain military facilities and
operations (including an airfield and large ship anchorages). With the
exception of direct support to missions—and potentially, emergency airplane
landings—there are no commercial or civilian flights to Wake Island.
In 2006, Wake Island was in the path of Super Typhoon Ioke. Given
the danger, the entire civilian and military population was evacuated. While
some damage to buildings and facilities occurred as a result of the storm, a
U.S. Air Force repair team subsequently restored full capabilities for
strategic use of the atoll.
Astronaut photograph ISS033-E-7873 was
acquired on September 27, 2012, with a Nikon D3S digital camera using a 400
millimeter lens, and is provided by the ISS Crew Earth Observations experiment
and Image Science & Analysis Laboratory, Johnson Space Center. The image
was taken by the Expedition 33 crew. It has
been cropped and enhanced to improve contrast, and lens artifacts have been
removed. The International Space Station Program supports the laboratory as part of the ISS National Lab to help
astronauts take pictures of Earth that will be of the greatest value to
scientists and the public, and to make those images freely available on the
Internet. Additional images taken by astronauts and cosmonauts can be viewed at
the NASA/JSC Gateway to Astronaut
Photography of Earth. Caption
by William L. Stefanov, Jacobs/ESCG at NASA-JSC.
Instrument:
ISS -
Digital Camera
هیچ نظری موجود نیست:
ارسال یک نظر