This mesmerizing tour of Earth, narrated by a scientist from Johnson Space Center's Crew Earth Observations Office , offers an extraordinary view of the surface from the vantage point of an astronaut orbiting on the International Space Station.
Here's a list of what NASA calls eye-popping shots of some of the same places as seen by instruments aboard the many unmanned satellites that also orbit Earth.
Seasonally dry salt lakes and the traces of ephemeral streams occupy many of the valleys of the Zagros Mountains in southern Iran. Much of the time, the rivers and lakes are dry above ground, but subterranean water flows along the same pathways. Where these subterranean streams flow out of the mountains, the water table comes closer to the surface, and it is more readily accessible through wells.This simulated natural-color image of southeastern Fars province in southern Iran shows a dry river channel carving through arid mountains toward the northeast. The dry river spreads out across the valley floor in a silvery fan. A broad belt of lush agricultural land follows the curve of the fan and stretches out along a road that runs parallel to the ridgeline. The valley-ward margin of the intensely green agricultural belt fades to dull green along streams (or irrigation canals). The image was captured by the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) on NASA’s Terra satellite on October 12, 2004.
NASA
East of southern Florida, large swaths of ocean water glow peacock blue. These waters owe their iridescence to their shallow depths. Near Florida and Cuba, the underwater terrain is hilly, and the crests of many of these hills comprise the islands of the Bahamas. On February 12, 2009, relatively clear skies allowed the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite an unobstructed view of the region.The most striking feature of this image is the Great Bahama Bank, a massive underwater hill underlying Andros Island in the west, Eleuthera Island in the east, and multiple islands in between. To the north, another bank underlies another set of islands, including Grand Bahama. The varied colors of these banks suggest their surfaces are somewhat uneven. The banks’ distinct contours, sharply outlined in dark blue, indicate that the ocean floor drops dramatically around them. In fact, over the banks, the water depth is often less than 10 meters (33 feet), but the surrounding basin plunges to depths as low as 4,000 meters (13,100 feet).MODIS is not the only satellite to capture beautiful images of the Bahamas. The region’s ocean water, sand, and seaweed make it equally dramatic in high-resolution satellite imagery.
NASA
Haze hovered over eastern China in mid-February 2011, obscuring the coastlines of Bo Hai and the Yellow Sea. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite captured this natural-color image on February 17, 2011.Gray-beige haze blankets the coastal plain and nearby ocean waters. The haze likely results from pollution held in place by a temperature inversion. Air high in the atmosphere is usually cooler than the air near the ground. As warm air rises through the atmosphere, it disperses its pollutants, but when cold air is trapped under a layer of warm air, it cannot rise.Winter temperature inversions are not uncommon in this region, and residents rely on coal for electricity and heat. This combination leads to frequent buildups of haze. Dust from farther inland might also be mixed with the haze in this image
NASA
Volcanic ash cloud streaming from a volcano
NASA
The Missouri River spilled over its banks around Glasgow, Missouri, in late June 2010. The Advanced Land Imager (ALI) on NASA’s Earth Observing-1 (EO-1) satellite captured this natural-color image on June 19, 2010.West of the town of Glasgow, the Missouri River curves toward the south-southwest and then toward the northeast. Immediately west of town, the river takes a sharp turn toward the south. In the bend in the river before its northeastern turn, flooding is apparent. Muddy brown water has collected north of the river, along Epperson Island. More floodwater appears south and west of the river where it curves toward the south-southwest. Additional flooding appears along riverbanks upstream.Patches of off-white on the water surface result from sunglint. Away from the river and the town, the land in this area appears primarily as a patchwork of brown and green croplands interspersed with patches of trees.According to the National Weather Service Advanced Hydrologic Prediction Service, the Missouri River’s water level was projected to drop below the major flood stage after June 21. The water level remained well above normal, however, and flood warnings continued for Glasgow and other communities along the Missouri River.
NASA
his view from one of the smaller dune seas in the central Sahara Desert shows the complex but regular patterns produced in deserts where wind and sand both abound. The image is centered at 26.9 North, 7.4 East, over eastern Algeria. Geologists now know that dune seas (also called ergs) exhibit at least three orders of dune size. The biggest dunes, called mega-dunes, probably took hundreds of thousands of years to accumulate, starting when the Sahara began turning arid roughly 2.5 million years ago. Rivers became smaller, failed to reach the sea, and deposited their sand load in the desert. Wind did the rest, blowing the sand into aerodynamic dune forms. Superimposed on the mega-dunes are mesoscale dunes (the prefix meso- means “intermediate.”) Whereas the mega-dunes are apparently stationary, studies based on aerial photographs in other parts of the world show that mesoscale dune crests move in the course of decades. The smallest dunes form and reform the fastest, meandering over the backs of the larger dunes.In this image, the mega-dunes appear as big, rolling lumps that zigzag toward the upper right. The “streets” between these biggest dune chains have been swept clean of sand in places, showing their original surfaces of pale mud and salts. The pale beige-grey of these areas contrasts with the otherwise burnt orange hues. Mesoscale dunes, some of which form octopus-like crests, or star dunes, mark the backs of the mega-dunes. The smallest dunes appear in patches on the eastern sides of the mega-dunes as a tracery of closely spaced crests. Interestingly, the crest orientation of the small dunes differs from the orientation of the mesoscale dunes. This difference is a common effect of local shifts in wind direction, which is influenced by dune height.The orientation trends in the mega-dunes coincide with two of the four major trends identified in the Great Eastern Sand Sea (or Grand Erg Oriental) immediately to the north. Each orientation shift likely implies a shift in the direction of the dominant wind that formed the dunes, attesting to the climate shifts that have occurred since sand began to accumulate in the central Sahara.
NASA