Anticyclone over the South Pacific
Date: 15 November 2009
Satellite: Rosetta
Copyright: ESA ©2009 MPS for OSIRIS Team MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/RSSD/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA
During its third and final flyby of Earth on 13 November 2009, Rosetta imaged this anticyclone over the South Pacific.
The image was taken by the OSIRIS instrument at 05:48 GMT and this false-colour composite was generated from the orange, green and blue filters.
The closest approach was at exactly 07:45:40 GMT, as Rosetta passed just south of the Indonesian island of Java, at an altitude of 2481 km.
Rosetta previously visited Earth in March 2005 and November 2007, and Mars in February 2007. Each planetary flyby gave Rosetta a gravity 'kick' to place it on the correct trajectory to reach comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko in May 2014.
Last Update: 1 September 2019
