Southwest Iran

This colorful radar composite image shows changes in large-scale agricultural plots in southwest Iran.

The individual images were acquired by the radar on Japan’s ALOS satellite on 16 November, 16 May and 1 October 2010. Combined, the different colors show changes in the fields – such as harvesting at different points on time.

The most prominent fields in this image each measure about 1 km across. To the lower right, the smaller structures are ponds for aquaculture. Important fish for inland fisheries include carp, roach and mullet.

Running through the center of the image is the Karun River. It is the country’s only navigable river, originating in the Zagros mountains and running its 720 km course southwest and into the Shatt al-Arab river, which then flows into the Persian Gulf.

Clusters of bright white radar reflections indicate the presence of buildings and other human-made structures, such as those seen in the middle of the blocks of fields and along the river.

On the center-right side of the image, we can also see dots of white, evenly dispersed in a single row east-to-west. These are reflections from towers holding power lines. While these structures are difficult to spot in optical imagery – like the satellite images on Google Earth – their reflectivity makes them more visible to radar.

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

Image credit: JAXA/ESA

Pine Island Glacier Retreat

Pine Island is the largest glacier in the West Antarctic Ice Sheet and one of the fastest ice streams on the continent, flowing into Pine Island Bay in the Amundsen Sea. Ten percent of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet drains out to the sea by way of this glacier. Radar data from the two ERS missions show that from 1992–2011 the glacier thinned by about 200 m, and its grounding line retreated up to 40 km. This animation is based on data from the of the STSE-GreenSAR project.

Video credit: Planetary Visions / University of Edinburgh / University of Leeds / ESA

Drought Near Sacramento, California

California's severe drought has been particularly devastating to farmers in the Central Valley. Three consecutive years of below-normal rainfall have resulted in the most serious drought emergency in decades. Because California leads the nation in agricultural production and exports, the cost of food, including dairy products and meat, is increasing. Over an area southwest of Sacramento, the effect can be clearly seen in these two February images acquired in 2014 and 2003 by the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) instrument on NASA's Terra spacecraft. Vegetation is depicted in shades of red, while barren fields are dark brown and gray. The left image was acquired on February 11, 2014 by Landsat 8, and the right image was acquired 11 years earlier, on February 8, 2003. The great increase of barren fields, and the bare hills in the southwest corner, are readily apparent. The images cover an area of 7.4 by 13.5 miles (12 by 21.7 kilometers), and are located at 38.9 degrees north, 121.8 degrees west.

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

Ice Sheet Contribution to Sea-Level Rise

This animation merges 20 years of satellite data to demonstrate how much – and how fast – the ice sheets cover Greenland and Antarctica are melting and their contribution to sea-level rise.

Video credit: Planetary Visions

Lakes Huron, Erie and Ontario

Three of North America’s five Great Lakes are pictured in this Envisat image: Lake Huron (left), Lake Ontario (right) and Lake Erie (bottom).

About 100,000 years ago, a major ice sheet formed over most of Canada and part of the US. As the ice sheet formed, giant glaciers flowed into the land carving out valleys and leveling mountains.

Some 14,000 years ago, higher temperatures began to melt the ice sheet, and meltwater filled the small and large holes left by the glaciers. Many of these holes today still contain water and form the thousands of lakes of the central USA and Canada. The biggest remnants of this process are the Great Lakes.

Covering an area of over 244,000 sq km and containing about 22,600 cubic km of water, together the Great Lakes form the largest connected area of fresh, surface water on Earth. The only place where more fresh water is contained is in the polar ice caps.

They have played an important role in North America’s economic development by providing a transportation system between the agricultural and mining regions on the western shores with the market centers on the East Coast. The ability to ship materials such as coal, iron and ore also gave rise to the steel and automobile industries in the area. Detroit – nicknamed ‘Motor City’ – is located on the Detroit River (lower left).

This image was acquired on 6 March 2010. Snow cover is evident across the land, and we can see ice build-up along some of the lakes’ edges.

A green algal bloom is also visible in Lake Erie. These toxic blooms have been a problem for the lake in recent years. Caused by heightened levels of phosphorus – found in fertilizers and common household products – finding its way into the water, these blooms have increased the size of the lake’s low-oxygen 'dead zone'.

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

Photo credit: ESA

Honolulu, Hawaii

This picture shows Honolulu on the island of Hawaii. The Eastern tip of the island is on the right, with the volcanic Diamond Head showing as a small black circle to the left. Sand Island shows up brightly under the yellow lines heading upwards – roads connecting the North of the island and the town of Kaneohe.

An Expedition 26 astronaut on the International Space Station took this picture 25 December 2010 at 13:15 GMT. He or she was circling Earth 350 km above.

Photo credit: NASA

The Massachusetts Coast in August 1978

This Seasat synthetic aperture radar image from August 27, 1978, shows the Massachusetts coast from Nantucket Island in the south past Cape Cod and Boston to Cape Ann in the north. The dark patch east and south of Nantucket is caused by the Nantucket Shoals, where a shallow ocean bottom creates surface waves and currents that appear as variations in brightness on the image. More subtle darker and lighter stripes to the east and north of Cape Cod are caused by internal waves, which are formed within the ocean by tides, rather than on the ocean surface by winds.

Seasat, which was managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., was the first satellite mission designed specifically to observe the ocean. Launched in 1978, it suffered a mission-ending power failure after 105 days of operation. But in that short time, Seasat collected more information about the ocean than had been acquired in the previous hundred years of shipboard research. The complete catalog of Seasat images has been processed digitally and is freely available from the Alaska Satellite Facility.

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Alaska Satellite Facility

Copper Mines in Southeastern Arizona

Arizona produces 60% of the total copper mined in the US; in 2007, 750,000 tons of copper came out of the state. One of the major mining districts is located about 30 km south of Tucson. Starting around 1950, open-pit mining replaced underground operations, and the ASARCO-Mission complex, Twin Buttes, and Sierrita mines became large open pit operations. Accompanying copper mineralization, silver, molybdenum, zinc, lead and gold are extracted. In addition to the pits themselves, enormous leach ponds and tailings piles surround the pits. The image was acquired May 31, 2012, covers an area of 22 by 28 km, and is located at 31.9 degrees north, 111 degrees west.

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

Europe

A nearly cloud-free view of Europe, part of a global mosaic of Proba-V images acquired on 9 March.

Our green continent is depicted at a resolution of 333 m, with snow capping the peaks of the Pyrenees and Alps bordering Italy.

Proba-V is a miniaturised ESA satellite tasked with a full-scale mission: to map land cover and vegetation growth across the entire planet every two days.

The camera’s continent-spanning 2250 km field of view collects light in the blue, red, near-infrared and mid-infrared wavebands, ideal for monitoring plant and forest growth as well as inland water bodies.

Proba-V images are processed and distributed to hundreds of scientific end users by VITO, Belgium's Flemish Institute for Technological Research, extending the dataset of previous generations of the Vegetation instrument flown on the Spot-4 and Spot-5 satellites.

Image credit: ESA/VITO

Imja Glacier, Himalayas, Nepal

This satellite image shows an area of the Himalaya mountain range in northeastern Nepal, about 8 km south of Mount Everest (not pictured).

The Himalayas are the world’s highest mountain range and home to the world’s highest peak, Mt Everest (about 8850 m), as well as dozens of other peaks over 7000 m high. These high peaks are covered permanently with snow.

The range is also home to thousands of glaciers, including the Imja glacier in the upper-central part of this image. Studies have shown an increase in the rate of glacial retreat for Imja and many other glaciers in the region – and in the world.

Glaciers are the largest reservoirs of freshwater on our planet, and their melting or growing is one of the best indicators of climate change. Satellite radar data can help monitor changes in glacier mass and, subsequently, their contribution to rising sea levels.

Glacial runoff from the Himalayas has a direct effect on the nearby rivers such as the Indus and Ganges, and is very important for lower-lying regions where there is a very large human population.

At the foot of the Imja glacier is the Imja lake, pictured in the upper-left. Melt-water makes this one of the fastest growing lakes in the Himalayas, and a threat to downstream communities.

This image, also featured in the Earth from Space video program, was acquired by the Kompsat-2 satellite on 14 January 2013.

Photo credit: KARI/ESA

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Update: Kuala Lumpur, the capital city of Malaysia was identified by ESA's followers as the city in this image.

Flying above our planet 400 km high at speeds of 28 800 km/h it is not always easy for astronauts on the International Space Station to know what city they are looking at – or even what country. Arbitrary national borders are not visible from space.

The image was taken on 11 February 2012 by an astronaut on Expedition 30. The Space Station image tag is ISS030-E-85887.

Photo credit: ESA/NASA

ESA’s European Astronaut Centre

Astronauts on the International Space Station often spend free time gazing at Earth. The outpost orbits our planet at around 400 km altitude, offering unique views. The European-built Cupola module has a 360º bay window to monitor approaching spacecraft but it also provides breathtaking vistas.

This image was taken on 4 March 2014 and shows a cloud-free view of the Rhine river winding towards Cologne on the left. The astronaut who took this picture might have recognized ESA’s European Astronaut Centre situated at the DLR German Aerospace Center site below Cologne-Bonn Airport. All Station astronauts train there on European experiments and systems before they leave Earth on their mission.

Photo credit: NASA

Sinkholes Predicted in Louisiana

Analyses by NASA's UAVSAR radar performed after the Bayou Corne, Louisiana, sinkhole formed show it was able to detect precursory ground surface movement of up to 10.2 inches (260 millimeters) more than a month before the sinkhole collapsed in August 2012. This interferogram was formed with images acquired on June 23, 2011 and July 2, 2012. Colors represent surface movement, with one full color wrap corresponding to 4.7 inches (120 millimeters) of displacement.

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Note: For more information, see That Sinking Feeling.

Margarita Island, Venezuela

Situated in the southern Caribbean Sea about 20 km off of mainland Venezuela’s coast, the island comprises two peninsulas linked by a long, narrow strip of land – called an isthmus.

The eastern part of the island is home to most of the island’s residents, while the Macanao peninsula to the west is dominated by a central mountain range.

Between the peninsulas and cut off from the open sea by the isthmus lies the La Restinga lagoon, a national park that appears as a dark green and blue area in this image.

Recognized as a wetland of international importance by the Ramsar Convention, the area features picturesque mangroves and is an important feeding ground for birds such as herons and flamingos. The shallow waters are home to red snappers, sardines and swordfish – among other types of fish – and oysters grow on the mangrove roots.

Japan's ALOS satellite captured this image on 26 June 2010 with its AVNIR-2 Advanced Visible and Near Infrared Radiometer.

ALOS was supported as a Third Party Mission, which means that ESA used its multi-mission ground systems to acquire, process, distribute and archive data from the satellite to its user community.

In April 2011 the satellite abruptly lost power while mapping Japan’s tsunami-hit coastline.

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

Image credit: JAXA/ESA

The Iberian Peninsula

This image from the International Space Station shows the Iberian Peninsula including Spain and Portugal at night.

The lights from human settlements reveal where the major towns and activity are. The large mass of light in the middle is Madrid, Spain’s capital city. The Iberian coastline is heavily populated with Valencia and Barcelona along the Mediterranean Sea prominent at the bottom right of this photo.

Portugal to the west shows similar lighting with the coast from Lisboa to Porto a haze of light.

This astronaut-image taken from 400 km above Earth shows how close the Iberian Peninsula is to Morocco. A thin line of blackness – the Strait of Gibraltar – separates the two.

Another thin line stands out in this picture – Earth’s atmosphere, the green shroud that surrounds and protects our world and the people and animals that live on it.

Photo credit: ESA/NASA

Arctic Ocean Ice Melt From Warm Mackenzie River Flows

These images show sea surface temperatures of the Beaufort Sea where Canada's Mackenzie River discharges into the Arctic Ocean, as measured by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instrument on NASA's Terra spacecraft. The image at left was obtained June 14, 2012, before discharged waters from the Mackenzie River (located in the bottom center of the image) broke through the adjacent sea ice barrier (shown in light blue) stuck along the shore of the Mackenzie River delta. The image at right, acquired July 5, 2012, shows the extensive intrusion of heat carried by the river waters once they breached the sea ice barrier (shown in yellow, orange and red). Scientists saw an increase of 11.7 degrees Fahrenheit (6.5 degrees Celsius) in the surface temperature of the open water, which enhanced sea ice melt.

Image credit: NASA

Note: For more information, see PIA18035: Warm Rivers Play Role in Arctic Sea Ice Melt (Animation) and NASA: Warm Rivers Play Role in Arctic Sea Ice Melt.

Vatican City

The Vatican City State is a sovereign city-state, whose area is a 44 hectare walled enclave west of the Tiber River, within the city of Rome. With a population of about 850, it is the smallest independent state in the world by both area and population. The independent city-state was established in 1929 by King Victor Emanuelle III of Italy. Vatican City is an ecclesiastical state ruled by the Bishop of Rome -- the Pope. The image was acquired July 4, 2010, covers an area of 10 by 13 km, and is located at 41.9 north, 12.5 east.

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

Cotopaxi and Antisana Volcanos

Ecuador’s northern highlands are pictured in this image from Envisat.

Near the top left of the image, the southern outskirts of Ecuador’s capital, Quito, appear as white dots. Quito is one of the highest capital cities in the world, at an elevation of 2850 m above sea level.

This area is part of the northern zone of the Andean Volcanic Belt. The belt was formed as a result of the Nazca and Antarctic tectonic plates moving under the South American plate – a geological process called ‘subduction’.

Near the bottom-left corner is the Cotopaxi stratovolcano. It is the second highest summit in the country at about 5900 m and one of Ecuador’s most active volcanoes, erupting more than 50 times since the early 1700s.

On the center-right side of the image is the Antisana volcano.

What look like white glaciers at the peaks of these mountains are actually artifacts of the radar echo – the surfaces of the summits are more or less directly facing the satellite, so the radar signal reflects straight back to the antenna.

This image was created by combining three Envisat radar passes from 4 June 2006, 20 January 2008 and 24 January 2010 over the same area.

Colors represent changes in the land’s surface between the three radar scans that make up this composite image. Some of the changes are distinct, such as the patchwork showing changes in agricultural plots near the top left. From Antisana to the west, the area is generally colorful, indicating ground movement.

East of Antisana, however, the area is less colorful, and therefore more stable.

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

Image credit: ESA