Strait of Messina, Italy

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The Strait of Messina is a narrow channel separating the island of Sicily from the Italian peninsula, connecting the Ionian Sea with the Tyrrhenian Sea. In the Strait, strong tidal currents occur, which interact with the shallow sill located in its center. The mean depth of the Strait is only 80 m, compared to depths of over 800 m to the south. Internal wave trains of solitary waves can be generated, and these show up as sea surface manifestations because they are associated with variable surface currents that modify the surface roughness. ASTER sees these as dark (smooth) and light (rough) patterns when the solar illumination is at the correct angle relative to the orientation of the satellite. The ASTER images were acquired August 11, 2003, cover an area of 58 x 90 km, and are centered near 37.9 degrees north latitude, 15.3 degrees east longitude.

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Strait of Messina, Italy Type: (JPG) Size: (4,484,167 bytes) Resolution ( 3,870 x 6,000 )