US Eastern Seaboard at Night

An Expedition 30 crew member aboard the International Space Station took this nighttime photograph of much of the Atlantic coast of the United States. Large metropolitan areas and other easily recognizable sites from the Virginia/Maryland/Washington, D.C. area are visible in the image that spans almost to Rhode Island. Boston is just out of frame at right. Long Island and the New York City area are visible in the lower right quadrant. Philadelphia and Pittsburgh are near the center. Parts of two Russian vehicles parked at the orbital outpost are seen in left foreground.

This image was taken on February 6, 2012.

Photo credit: NASA

Rügen Island

The icy waters of the Baltic Sea surrounding Germany’s largest island, Rügen, are pictured in this image from ALOS satellite. The knob in the upper-central portion of the image is home to the Jasmund National Park and its magnificent white chalk cliffs. Sea ice blankets the surrounding brackish waters, hugging the island’s shores with its many peninsulas. The white lines that cut through larger ice-covered bodies of water are the remnants of ice-breaking boats and ships.

ALOS captured this image on 24 February 2011. ... In April 2011 the satellite abruptly lost power while mapping Japan’s tsunami-hit coastline.

Photo credit: JAXA, ESA

Earth's Clouds are Getting Lower

This image of clouds over the southern Indian Ocean was acquired on July 23, 2007 by one of the backward (northward)-viewing cameras of the Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MISR) instrument on NASA's polar-orbiting Terra spacecraft. The area covered by the image is 247.5 kilometers wide and 660 kilometers long, and is shown in an approximate perspective view at an angle of 60 degrees off of vertical. The solar zenith angle ranges from about 83 degrees at the top of the image to 88 degrees at the bottom, hence the lengthening of shadows cast by the clouds on the underlying ocean surface and reddening of the hues in the foreground. Stereoscopic analysis of the data from multiple MISR cameras indicates that the cloud tops visible here range in altitude from about 0.6 to 2.5 miles (1 to 4 kilometers). A new university study using MISR data revealed an overall trend of decreasing global cloud height during the last decade.

Photo credit: NASA/GSFC/METI/ERSDAC/JAROS, and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team

The Horn of Africa

This Envisat image of the Horn of Africa shows parts of Ethiopia, Eritrea, Djibouti and, to the northeast across the Red Sea, a portion of Yemen’s west coast. The lighter-colored area to the east is known as the Afar Triangle and includes the Danakil Desert. Further west we can see the somewhat heart-shaped Lake Tana. With a surface area of over 2000 sq km, the average depth is only 14 m owing to high levels of sediment. This image was acquired on 13 November 2011 by the MERIS instrument on ESA’s Envisat satellite.

Photo credit: ESA

Morocco and Algeria

This Envisat image, acquired on 5 December 2011 by the MERIS instrument, shows part of central Morocco from the Atlantic Ocean to the west, over the Atlas mountains and into arid parts of Algeria further inland. The snow-capped High Atlas mountain range divides Morocco from the Sahara desert’s climatic influences in Algeria. The Sahara is constantly expanding southward, rendering large areas of land barren. One of the many benefits of Earth observation satellites is the possibility to monitor changes like desertification, or the degradation of land, caused by human activities or climate change.

Photo credit: ESA

Shanghai

The Chinese city of Shanghai sits at the mouth of the Yangtze River where it empties into the East China Sea. To the north is Chongming Island and the smaller Changxing Island just below. These are important areas for agriculture – evident in this image by the patchwork of croplands. The dark area hugging Changxing Island is the Qingcaosha Reservoir. This SPOT-5 image was acquired on 25 June 2009, with a resolution of 10 m.

Photo credit: CNES, Spot Image, ESA

Blue Marble 2012 - Africa, the Middle East and India

Responding to public demand, NASA scientists created a companion image to the wildly popular 'Blue Marble' released last week (January 25, 2012).

The new image is a composite of six separate orbits taken on January 23, 2012 by the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership satellite. Both of these new 'Blue Marble' images are images taken by a new instrument flying aboard Suomi NPP, the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS).

Compiled by NASA Goddard scientist Norman Kuring, this image has the perspective of a viewer looking down from 7,918 miles (about 12,742 kilometers) above the Earth's surface from a viewpoint of 10 degrees South by 45 degrees East. The four vertical lines of 'haze' visible in this image shows the reflection of sunlight off the ocean, or 'glint,' that VIIRS captured as it orbited the globe. Suomi NPP is the result of a partnership between NASA, NOAA and the Department of Defense.

Photo credit: NASA/NOAA

Note: For more information, see VIIRS Eastern Hemisphere Image - Behind the Scenes.

Blue Marble 2012

A 'Blue Marble' image of the Earth taken from the VIIRS instrument aboard NASA's most recently launched Earth-observing satellite - Suomi NPP. This composite image uses a number of swaths of the Earth's surface taken on January 4, 2012. The NPP satellite was renamed 'Suomi NPP' on January 24, 2012 to honor the late Verner E. Suomi of the University of Wisconsin.

Suomi NPP is NASA's next Earth-observing research satellite. It is the first of a new generation of satellites that will observe many facets of our changing Earth.

Suomi NPP is carrying five instruments on board. The biggest and most important instrument is The Visible/Infrared Imager Radiometer Suite or VIIRS.

Photo credit: NASA/NOAA/GSFC/Suomi NPP/VIIRS/Norman Kuring

The Alps

The snow-kissed Alps that stretch across France, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Liechtenstein, Austria and Slovenia are captured in this Envisat image, acquired on 16 January 2012. Owing to this snow cover and a relatively low illumination angle of the Sun during this time of year, the ranges and valleys of the mountains stand out in the image.

Just south of the Alps we see the typical winter fog and clouds over the Po Valley. Stretching down the length of the Italian peninsula are the Apennine Mountains. In the lower-right corner, we can see Italy’s Lake Trasimeno. Closer to the Alps is the long Lake Garda. On the opposite side of the Alps from Garda, on the border of Switzerland, Germany and Austria, is Lake Constance. Further north in the upper-left portion of the image we can see Germany’s Black Forest.

Photo credit: ESA