Lodz, Poland

In the center of Poland lies its third-largest city: Łódź. Seen from the International Space Station at night the city’s lights contrast with the blackness of the surrounding countryside.

Unlike many pictures of night-time Earth, the local airport is not the most striking visual marker. The Łódź Władysław Reymont Airport seems to be obscured by clouds causing the slight blurring seen to the bottom left of Łódź.

In this picture land-transport is responsible for the distinctive ‘X’ at the top right: a motorway junction near the town of Stryków. The lights to the left of the junction correspond to a transport hub for trucks.

Satellite towns of Pabianice (bottom-left) and Zgierz (top) also show up clearly in this picture.

This image was taken by an astronaut from 400 km above Earth in April 2012.

Photo credit: ESA/NASA

Flooding in Bolivia

Extremely heavy seasonal rains have fallen on northern Bolivia since October 2013. Resulting floods have affected as many as 150,000 inhabitants, and threatened around 100,000 head of cattle. The worst affected province is Beni in the northeastern part of the country. In this image, acquired February 25, 2014, by the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) instrument on NASA's Terra spacecraft, vegetation is red, clouds are white, and flooded areas are grey-brown. The image covers an area of 21 by 22 miles (34 by 35 kilometers) and is located near 14 degrees south, 66.5 degrees west.

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

Rapid Mapping of European Floods

Floods across central Europe caused widespread damage in 2013. Maps based on satellite data can help emergency services plan their response to such events. Through the Copernicus Emergency Management Service, 118 maps were produced to assist in flood relief.

Video credit: ESA/DLR

Note: For more information, see Flood Mapping Highlight.

Kelud Volcano, Java, Indonesia

The February 13, 2014, violent eruption of Kelud stratovolcano in Java, Indonesia sent volcanic ash covering an area of 70,000 square miles (181,300 square kilometers), and prompted the evacuation of tens of thousands of people. Earlier 20th century eruptions killed thousands of people, mainly as the result of hot mudflows ("lahars"). This image from the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) instrument on NASA's Terra spacecraft was acquired on February 20, after the eruption had greatly diminished. Ash-covered areas are seen on the north slopes of the volcano (the summit is hidden underneath clouds); ash-choked rivers flow down the west and southwest flanks of the volcano. ASTER's thermal infrared channels show continued activity at the summit. The image covers an area of 14.2 by 16.1 miles (23 by 26 kilometers), and is located at 7.9 degrees south, 112.3 degrees east.

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

The Ganges Delta

Proba-V images the Ganges Delta, the world’s largest delta, in the area of Bangladesh and India. The delta plain, about 350 km wide along the Bay of
Bengal, is formed by the confluence of the rivers Ganges, the Brahmaputra and Meghna. This Proba-V Vegetation image was acquired on 2 February 2014 at 100 m spatial resolution.

Image credit: ESA/VITO

Kumbunbur Creek, Australia

This false-color satellite image shows the Kumbunbur Creek in Australia’s Northern Territory, about 260 km southwest of the city of Darwin.

The green ‘branches’ of what looks like a tree are the waterways of runoff that flow into the Timor Sea (not pictured).

The false-color makes vegetation appear bright red, and we can clearly see how vegetation grows mainly along the waterways. Vegetation is more evenly dispersed across the plain to the north.

The image was captured by the Kompsat-2 satellite on 20 September 2011, near the end of the dry season. The dry areas with a somewhat dull color in this image become flooded mudflats during the rainy season.

The rainy season occurs during a tropical area’s summer months because of increased heat from the Sun’s more direct impact angle. Higher temperatures lead to an increase in evaporation and rising, warm air masses. This air expands and cools, leading to the formation of cumulus clouds, and almost daily rainfall and thunderstorms.

As seasons change, the location of these rainfalls travels to areas with the highest Sun impact angles, resulting in wet and dry seasons in different zones of the tropics.

The tropics are the region of Earth north and south of the equator. Some areas of northern Australia are part of the tropical climate zone.

This image is featured on the Earth from Space video program.

Image credit: KARI/ESA

Milan, Italy

This patchwork of light is Milan, Italy, seen from space at night. An astronaut on the International Space Station took this picture from 400 km above Earth traveling at speeds of 28,800 km/h.

Street-lighting and well-lit buildings stand out from the darkness of agricultural fields and show the urban sprawl of this North-Italian city.

Two features stick out. The rectangular outline at the top left of the city center is Fiera Milano, a trade and exhibition fair that was holding an event at the time this picture was taken, 8 December 2012.

At the top left is the City of Milan Airport clearly showing its runways for approaching aircraft.

This image was taken with the Nightpod camera-stand that tracks the movement of Earth passing under the International Space Station keeping any target fixed in the middle of the viewfinder. Standard cameras fixed to Nightpod can take pictures with longer exposure times so astronauts can take sharper pictures of cities at night.

Photo credit: ESA/NASA

Flooding on the Thames River

On February 17, 2014, the United Kingdom Environment Agency had issued flood warnings for the area from Walton-on-Thames in the east to Reading in the west, as depicted in this image acquired by the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) instrument on NASA's Terra spacecraft on February 16, 2014. High water levels and flooding along the Thames River west of London were part of a larger picture of devastation throughout southwest England and Wales, as record-breaking rains covered the United Kingdom in January and February. In this image, vegetation is red; clouds are white and their shadows are black; the Thames River flows across the image in dark cyan color. The image covers an area of 17.7 by 28.5 miles (28.5 by 46 kilometers), and is located near 51.5 degrees north, 0.7 degrees west.

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

Río de la Plata

Río de la Plata estuary between Argentina and Uruguay, acquired by Proba-V in November 2013.

Image credit: ESA/BELSPO

Lagoa dos Patos, Brazil

Proba-V demonstrates its maximum resolution in this view of part of the Lagoa dos Patos lagoon, in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, southern Brazil. The city of Porto Alegre is located at the top of the image, visible as a greyish tint. This highlight from a Proba-V Vegetation image was acquired on 6 February 2014 from the central portion of the instrument swath at 100 m resolution.

Image credit: ESA/VITO

Miscanti and Miñiques Lakes

This satellite image shows the heart-shaped Miscanti lake and smaller Miñiques lake in northern Chile.

The lakewater is brackish – meaning that it’s saltier than freshwater, but not as much as seawater. This is due to the salinity in the soil. Chile’s largest salt flat – the Salar de Atacama – lies to the west (not pictured).

Two partially snow-covered volcanoes can be seen above and below the lakes on the right, while plains stretch out to the west in a nearly vegetation-free environment.

The area pictured is part of the Atacama Desert, which runs along part of South America’s central west coast. It is considered one of the driest places on Earth, as moisture from the Amazon Basin is blocked by the Andes to the east, as well as from the Pacific Ocean by the Chilean Coastal Range to the west. Pacific Ocean currents and wind circulation also play a major role in the desert climate.

Because of the Atacama plateau’s high altitude, low cloud cover and lack of light pollution, it is one of the best places in the world to conduct astronomical observations and home to two major observatories.

Some areas of the desert have been compared to the planet Mars, and have been used as a location for filming scenes set on the red planet. Just last year, ESA tested a self-steering rover in the Atacama, which was selected for its similarities to Martian conditions.

The Japanese Advanced Land Observation Satellite, or ALOS, captured this image on 30 May 2010.

This image is featured on the Earth from Space video program.

Photo credit: JAXA/ESA

Cairo and the Nile River

This night-time image of the Nile River running into the delta that ends in the Mediterranean Sea clearly shows Egypt’s capital city, Cairo, and its satellite cities. The image taken by an astronaut on the International Space Station shows how humans have colonized our planet over the ages.

To the left is 6th of October City that was established in 1979. The modern city reveals itself by the squarer lines compared to the more organic Cairo that evolved over thousands of years of human settlement. The regular block of light above and to the right of 6th of October City is Sheikh Zayed City, established in 1995.

To the right of Cairo are even newer settlements, the aptly named New Cairo City houses many universities and lies in the desert further away from the resource-rich Nile river. These satellite cities attract people away from the densely populated Cairo.

To the North (top-right in this picture) lie the agricultural fields that rely on water from the Nile River. Interspersed at crossroads are smaller cities and villages that give off the distinctive yellow glow of human settlements at night.

Photo credit: ESA/NASA

Mount Etna

Mount Etna, Europe's most active volcano, continued its latest eruptive activity with a new lava flow from the recently formed southeast crater. In this February 7, 2014 image acquired from the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) instrument on NASA's Terra spacecraft, vegetation is red, snow is white and bare lava flows are dark gray. The yellow pixels are areas that are highlighted in the thermal infrared channels, and indicate the hot crater (single spot) and the lava flow. To the east, the thin blue-gray cloud is ash and gas emitted from the crater. The image covers an area of 12.4 by 13.7 miles (20 by 22 kilometers), and is centered near 37.5 degrees north, 15 degrees east.

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

Note: For more information, see Sicily.

Mount Sinabung

Mount Sinabung is a stratovolcano located in Indonesia. In late 2013, a lava dome formed on the summit. In early January 2014, the volcano erupted, and it erupted again in early February. Tall ash columns deposited material over a wide area; pyroclastic flows rumbled down the volcano's slopes, engulfing villages and resulting in fatalities.

On February 10, 2014, the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) instrument on NASA's Terra spacecraft captured an image of Sinabung: the top image depicts vegetation in red; an ash plume is light gray streaming eastward from the summit; light-colored areas on the southeast flank are pyroclastic and ash deposits. The bottom image is a composite of ASTER thermal infrared bands: the plume is in purple, indicating that its composition is mostly ash; the white triangular area is hotter than the surrounding materials; blue streaks are water clouds. The images cover an area of 10.3 by 19.6 miles (16.5 by 31.5 kilometers), and are centered at 3.2 degrees north, 98.4 degrees east.

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

Sierra Leone Estuary

The Sierra Leone estuary became a focal point for trade and interaction between Africans and Europeans because of its exceptional harbor, starting in the mid-15th century. European ships were unable to land along much of the West African coast due to lack of safe anchorage. By contrast, the Sierra Leone estuary offers ideal anchorage for trading ships. Around 1672, the English established and fortified themselves at Bunce Island. By the mid-eighteenth century, Sierra Leone had become a major trading participant with Europe and the Americas. The image was acquired December 28, 2009, covers an area of 32x45 km, and is located at 8.5 degrees north, 13 degrees west.

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

Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

The city of Jeddah’s seaport on Saudi Arabia’s western coast is pictured in this image from the Kompsat-2 satellite.

The second largest city in the country, Jeddah has a population of over five million people. The city is a gateway to Islam’s holiest city of Mecca, which lies about 60 km to the east, as well to the holy city of Medina, about 320 km north.

It is also an important commercial hub, with its port located in the middle of an important shipping route between east and west. Zooming in, we can see some large container vessels in the port.

Near the bottom of the image, the large circles are the tanks of an oil refinery. The oil industry comprises about 45% of Saudi Arabia’s gross domestic product, and 90% of export earnings. Saudi Arabia is the world’s number-one oil exporter, and therefore plays a major role in the global energy industry. Its policies on the production and export of oil, natural gas and petroleum products have a major impact on the energy market, as well as the global economy.

The Red Sea’s coral reefs are visible off the coast. In fact, this is one of the few places along this coastline with a gap in the reef, enabling large vessels to approach the coast.

This image, also featured in the Earth from Space video program, was acquired on 17 March 2013 by the Korea Aerospace Research Institute’s Kompsat-2 satellite.

Photo credit: KARI/ESA

Osaka, Japan

Osaka lies to the West of Tokyo and is Japan’s third-largest city. The city runs along the Yodo river and stretches along the coast of Osaka Bay.

Images of our planet at night taken from the International Space Station show that people have settled where the living is easy – along rivers and bays. Artificial lights from human habitation and industry highlight the advantages of settling next to rivers and seas where water provides food, waste disposal, transport and cooling for factories.

The white lights in the center of this picture correspond to Osaka’s two city centers, Kita and Minami, where businesses, shopping streets and areas of entertainment are concentrated.

To the Northeast, across the river Yodo, lies Itami Airport, the yellow vertical lights to the right of a river running North-South. The airport shares the load of landing aircraft in the Osaka area with Kobe and Kansai airports that were both built on artificial islands in Osaka Bay. The yellow lights of Kobe airport can be seen at the top-left of Osaka Bay in this picture, Kansai airport is just outside the frame.

Photo credit: ESA/NASA

Sochi, Russia

The Black Sea resort of Sochi, Russia, is the warmest city ever to host the Winter Olympic Games, which open on February 7, 2014, and run through February 23. This north-looking image, acquired on January 4, 2014, by the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) instrument on NASA's Terra spacecraft, shows the Sochi Olympic Park Coastal Cluster -- the circular area on the shoreline in the bottom center of the image -- which was built for Olympic indoor sports. Even curling has its own arena alongside multiple arenas for hockey and skating. The Olympic alpine events will take place at the Mountain Cluster, located in a snow-capped valley at the top right of the image. Sochi itself, a city of about 400,000, is not visible in the picture. It's farther west (left) along the coast, past the airport at bottom left.

In the image, red indicates vegetation, white is snow, buildings are gray and the ocean is dark blue. The area imaged is about 15 miles (24 kilometers) from west to east (left to right) at the coastline and 25 miles (41 kilometers) from front to back. Height is exaggerated 1.5 times. The image was created from the ASTER visible and near-infrared bands, draped over ASTER-derived digital elevation data.

The 2014 Winter Olympic ski runs may be rated double black diamond, but they're not quite as steep as they appear in this image of the skiing and snowboarding sites for the Sochi Winter Olympic Games, acquired on January 4, 2014, by the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) instrument on NASA's Terra spacecraft. Rosa Khutar ski resort near Sochi, Russia, is in the valley at center, and the runs are visible on the shadowed slopes on the left-hand side of the valley. Height has been exaggerated 1.5 times to bring out topographic details. The games, which begin on February 7 and continue for 17 days, feature six new skiing and boarding events plus the return of the legendary Jamaican bobsled team to the Winter Games for the first time since 2002.

In this southwest-looking image, red indicates vegetation, white is snow, and the resort site appears in gray. The area imaged is about 11 miles (18 kilometers) across in the foreground and 20 miles (32 kilometers) from front to back. The image was created from the ASTER visible and near-infrared bands, draped over ASTER-derived digital elevation data.

Image credits: NASA/GSFC/METI/ERSDAC/JAROS, and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team (top and bottom)

Note: For more information, see NASA Satellite Eyes Sochi Olympic Sites. Also, Proba-V’s Olympic View.

Monitoring Alaskan Lake Ice

In northern Alaska, within the Arctic circle, the ice regimes of shallow lakes were documented using 79 radar images from the ERS-1 and -2 satellites. How the radar signals bounced back to the sensor indicated ‘floating ice’ versus ‘grounded ice’ (fully frozen lake) when radar energy was absorbed into the ground. The data showed that from 1992 to 2011 the lakes in this region experienced a 22% reduction in grounded ice – the equivalent of ice thinning by 21–38 cm.

Video credit: Planetary Visions / University of Waterloo, Canada / ESA

Zambezi River, Zambia

This image from Envisat’s radar shows the Zambezi River’s floodplain in western Zambia.

The city of Mongu appears as a cluster of white radar reflections on the right side of the image. It is about 15 km from the river’s main channel – which appears light green, snaking down the left side of the image – but during the wet season, the waters rise right up to the edge of the town.

This image is a compilation of three acquisitions from Envisat’s radar. Each acquisition is assigned a color, and when combined show changes between the acquisitions.

The individual images were acquired on 1 March, during the wet season, 27 September and 26 December, when water levels were low, all during 2011. Combined, the psychedelic array of colors reveal how drastically the floodplain changes between seasons.

As the second largest wetland in Zambia, the Zambezi floodplain is a major spawning ground for fish. With about 80 different fish species, it serves as a source of livelihood to the local people, along with harvesting of other wetland resources like reeds and sedges for handicraft, and rice cultivation.

But this area is threatened by unsustainable fishing, animal poaching and the dredging of canals.

The Zambezi floodplains is just one of the over 2000 sites worldwide considered to be wetlands of international importance by the Ramsar Convention – an intergovernmental treaty for the sustainable use of wetlands. World Wetlands Day is observed on 2 February, the anniversary of the signing of the Convention.

ESA assists the Ramsar Convention through the GlobWetland project and the TIGER initiative ‘Looking After Water in Africa’, which provide satellite data to be used to monitor these precious resources.

This image is featured in the Earth from Space video program.

Image credit: ESA