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 Mount Etna in Sicily, Italy
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This Advanced Synthetic Aperture Radar (ASAR) image shows the east coast of Sicily, the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, separated from mainland Italy by the Strait of Messina (in the top of the image) of 32 km long and 3 to 8 km wide and connecting the Tyrrhenian Sea (in the top) with the Ionian Sea (in the bottom).
The active volcanic island of Stromboli on the Tyrrhenian Sea is clearly visible in the top left part of the image with its crater Sciara del Fuoco (926 metres). Mount Etna, the highest active volcano in Europe, is in the centre of the image, covering an area of 1600 square kilometres and with a height of 3323 metres approximately. The mountain is an immense cone broken by fissures and some 250 minor cones (some of them clearly visible in the image).
The city of Catania is seen on the coast to the southeast of the volcano in bright colour with the Fontanarossa International Airport to the south of the city. Syracuse, in antiquity the largest and most powerful city in Sicily, is also seen in bright colour on the eastern cape of the image. |
| Technical Information: | |
Satellite: Envisat
Instrument: ASAR
Acquistion: 09-Apr-2003
Orbit nr: 05787
Centre coordinates: lat. 37.57, lon. 15.72
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| Credit: European Space Agency. All rights reserved. |
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