Ankara, the capital of Turkey, stands out in bright shades of white and yellow in this nighttime photograph taken by an astronaut from the International Space Station. If Ankara is the geographic and political heart of Turkey, the railroad and highway systems certainly act as the arteries. These well-lit transportation networks encircle and radiate outward from the city center.
The two most distinct nighttime colors in Ankara are the pockets of white light and the more widespread yellow-orange hues. The colors come from different light bulb technologies, and broadly outline a separation between industrial and residential areas. The industrial city of Sincan, for example, emits powerful white light, while yellow streetlights add a warm glow to neighborhoods that show up with signature red rooftops during the day.
The unique shape of the Atatürk Mausoleum and its surrounding parkland—final resting place for the first president of the Republic of Turkey—stands out amid the nighttime lights in the center of Ankara.
Astronaut photograph ISS062-E-112756 was acquired on March 25, 2020, with a Nikon D5 digital camera using a 190 millimeter lens and is provided by the ISS Crew Earth Observations Facility and the Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit, Johnson Space Center. The image was taken by a member of the Expedition 62 crew. The image 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 Alex Stoken, Jacobs, JETS Contract at NASA-JSC.
