An astronaut aboard the International Space Station took this photo while orbiting over the Persian Gulf. The image shows the Manifa Field Causeway, a human-made development off the eastern coast of Saudi Arabia. The astronaut used a long focal-length lens to capture this detailed scene of blocky “island” structures against the blue-green waters.
Large oil fields are found both onshore and offshore throughout the Middle East. Techniques for extracting petroleum products vary depending on location and the resource depth below the surface. The Manifa Field Causeway and its respective islands were developed in coastal waters too shallow for building traditional offshore drilling platforms.
Additionally, the region is home to coral reefs, migratory birds, and fishing communities. The causeway’s design includes more than a dozen bridges that allow tidal water to flow between the deeper gulf and shallow shoreline ecosystems.
Astronaut photograph ISS069-E-82337 was acquired on August 25, 2023, with a Nikon D5 digital camera using a focal length of 1150 millimeters. The image was provided by the ISS Crew Earth Observations Facility and the Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit at Johnson Space Center. The image was taken by a member of the Expedition 69 crew. It 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 Andrea Wenzel/Jacobs-JETS II Contract at NASA-JSC.