These Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MISR) images of Pulau Yos
Sudarso were captured by the instrument's nadir camera on July 31, 2002, and
show a natural-color (top) and false-color (bottom) view of a 291 kilometer x
158 kilometer area. The false-color image includes data from the camera's
near-infrared band, and accentuates the appearance of vegetation. North is
toward the top. Answers to the nine statements about the large, leaf-shaped
island in the lower left part of the image area are provided.
The island is known by at least three different names.
Answer: TRUE
Pulau Kimaam, Pulau Dolok, Pulau Yos Sudarso, and Frederik Hendrik Island
are all names used to refer to this island, which is part of the Indonesian
province of West Papua (also known as Irian Jaya).
At least one language spoken on the island is not in common usage
anywhere else.
Answer: TRUE
Linguists have identified over 500 languages spoken within the
"Trans-New Guinea" region (comprising West Papua and Papua New
Guinea). At least two languages within this group, Ndom and Riantana, are only
used by people living on the island.
The capital city of the province to which the island belongs is located
within 200 kilometers of the northern boundary of the image area.
Answer: FALSE
Jayapura, the capital city of West Papua, is located more than 500
kilometers from the northern boundary of the image area.
The island's shores are home to its country's most spectacular coral
reefs.
Answer: FALSE
Although there are many well-developed reefs in the waters of West Papua,
none are found along the southeastern coast. Large amounts of sediment
(apparent in the image around the entire coastline) prohibit reef development
in this region.
Due to the extreme depth of the sea floor surrounding the island, sea
level fluctuations during the Quaternary Period have not changed the
horizontal location of its coastline by more than 500 meters.
Answer: FALSE
Sea level fluctuations cause major displacements in the horizontal
location of coastlines in this region. The Arafura Sea surrounding the island
is a shallow (50 to 80 meters) continental shelf, and sea levels during the
peak of the last ice age (about 20,000 years ago), were more than 100 meters
lower than today.
There are no fruit bats on the island.
Answer: FALSE
Among the bats known to live on the island are the Lesser tube-nosed
fruit bat and Broad-striped tube-nosed fruit bat.
The region within which the island is situated harbors a freshwater
turtle that is exceptional in its possession of an anatomical characteristic
otherwise typical of marine turtles.
Answer: TRUE
The pig-nosed turtle found in northern Australia and southern Papua,
possesses flippers resembling those of marine turtles.
Insect control has been tested as a means of combatting an invasive
aquatic weed that threatens wetland habitats in the island's
vicinity.
Answer: TRUE
Many of the wetland areas in this region are choked with Water Hyacinth.
In November 2000, a course was conducted on the breeding and use of insect
biocontrol agents (weevil Neochetina) of Water Hyacinth infestations.
Species of Avicennia are found in the island's coastal regions.
Answer: TRUE
The island's coastline includes some of the largest mangrove forests in
the world, and several types of Avicennia mangroves can be found at the Pulau
Kimaam Wildlife Reserve.
MISR was built and is managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena,
CA, for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Terra
spacecraft is managed by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD. The
MISR data were obtained from the NASA Langley Research Center Atmospheric
Science Data Center in Hampton, VA.
