SPACEPHOTOS

This image shows a perspective view of the area around Pasadena, California, just north of Los Angeles. The cluster of hills surrounded by freeways on the left is the Verdugo Hills, which lie between the San Gabriel Valley in the foreground and the San Fernando Valley in the upper left. The San Gabriel Mountains are seen across the top of the image, and parts of the high desert near the city of Palmdale are visible along the horizon on the right. Several urban features can be seen in the image. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)is the bright cluster of buildings just right of center. The flat tan area to the right of JPL at the foot of the mountains is a new housing development devoid of vegetation. Two freeways (the 210 and the 134) cross near the southeastern end of the Verdugo Hills near a white circular feature, the Rose Bowl. The commercial and residential areas of the city of Pasadena are the bright areas clustered around the freeway. These data will be used for a variety of applications including urban planning and natural hazard risk analysis. This type of display adds the important dimension of elevation to the study of land use and environmental processes as observed in satellite images. The perspective view was created by draping a Landsat satellite image over an SRTM elevation model. Topography is exaggerated 1.5 times vertically.