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DOWN TO EARTH: Man-made island in the Persian Gulf
30 Jun 2009
A partly man-made island located in the Persian Gulf some 40 kilometres northwest of Abu Dhabi is featured in this image acquired by ALOS, Japan's four-tonne Earth observation satellite.
The island was built to hold an offshore oil platform and structures from which oil can be easily loaded onto tankers. It is a very common practice in the area for crude oil to be transported from the mainland onto islands off the coast and then loaded onto oil tankers to be shipped to their destinations.
In order to grant oil vessels access to the oil, channels (visible in dark blue) have been dug along the island. The turquoise and light blue areas visible around the island represent the coral reef typical in the southern Persian Gulf region.
ALOS (Advanced Land Observing Satellite) captured this image on April 5, 2009 with its Advanced Visible and Near Infrared Radiometer type-2 (AVNIR-2) instrument.
Adapted from information issued by JAXA / ESA.
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