If schedule or budget have kept you from visiting the Grand Canyon this summer, you
can still enjoy the stunning features created by the Colorado River over the centuries,
courtesy of NASA.
A new image shows a simulated true-color perspective view of the Arizona
natural wonder. Facing north-northeast, the view is dominated by the North Rim, and it is
about 30 kilometers (19 miles) wide at the horizon. Grand Canyon Village is on the lower
right of the image, and the Bright Angel Trail is visible as it crosses the Tonto Plateau.
The trail also goes to Phantom Ranch, the green area across the Colorado River.
The image was taken by the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and
Reflection Radiometer, an imaging instrument flying on NASA's Terra satellite.
The image is available at:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/images/earth/usa/west.html.
More information on the mission is available at:
http://asterweb.jpl.nasa.gov.
The Terra spacecraft, the flagship of a fleet of satellites dedicated to
understanding our global environment, is part of NASA's Earth Sciences Enterprise, a
long-term research program dedicated to understanding how human-induced and natural
changes affect our world.
The Jet Propulsion Laboratory is a division of the California Institute of
Technology in Pasadena.
