This image was acquired on July 23, 2001 and covers an area of 64 x 72 km. The data were processed to create a simulated natural color image. From its start as a sleepy Spanish pueblo in 1781, LA and its metropolitan area has grown to become an ethnically diverse, semitropical megalopolis, laying claim as the principal center of the western US and the nation's second largest urban area. The city's economy is based on international trade, aerospace, agriculture, tourism, and filmmaking. LA provides a glimpse of the typically cosmopolitan and global city of the future.