Sediment Plume from Above the Storm

Looking back to the period immediately after Harvey, check out this NASA photo of a sediment plume coming out of Galveston Bay on 8/31/2017. An astronaut took the photo using a Nikon D4 with a wide angle lens from 216 miles above the Earth.

As Harvey moved away from Houston, note the sediment plumes spilling out of bays in this photo of the Texas Coastline.

Talk about a dredging problem! The entire northern Gulf of Mexico looks like a Mint Oreo Shake. The brightest part of the plume coming out of Galveston Bay in this shot of the Texas Coastline measures 20 – 30 miles offshore. But the faintest part of the sediment plume extends approximately another 80 miles. Houston is northwest of the bright, light brown area under the clouds that form an arrowhead in the middle of the photo.

Zooming in and boosting contrast. We can see Lake Houston above Galveston Bay on the right of the clouds in the middle.

The mind boggling thing is that enough pressure existed to push the plumes out that far that fast.

Technical Data

NASA PHOTO ID iss052e078795.NEF
GMT 2017:08:31 19:23:43
MODEL NIKON D4
Shutter 1/500
Aperture 18.0
ISO Speed 400
Focal Length 24.0 mm
Lens ID AF-S Nikkor 17-35mm f/2.8D IF-ED
Compensation -1/3
Mission: ISS052 Roll: E Frame: 78795
Country or Geographic Name: USA-TEXAS
Features: HURRICANE HARVEY, HOUSTON, GALVESTON B., MATAGORDA B., FLOODING, DRAINAGE
Center Point: Latitude: 29.0 Longitude: -95.5 (Negative numbers indicate west for longitude)
Spacecraft Altitude: 216 nautical miles
Sun Elevation Angle: 65 (Angle in degrees between the horizon and the sun, measured at the nadir point)

Posted on 7/14/2018 by Bob Rehak

319 Days Since Hurricane Harvey

Photo: Courtesy of NASA