Liftoff of Sentinel-1A

Cameras mounted on the Soyuz Fregat upper stage that sent Sentinel-1A into space on 3 April 2014 captured this footage from liftoff to separation.

The 2.3-ton satellite lifted off on a Soyuz rocket from Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana at 21:02 GMT (23:02 CEST). The first stage separated 118 sec later, followed by the fairing (209 sec), stage 2 (287 sec) and the upper assembly (526 sec). After a 617 sec burn, the Fregat upper stage delivered Sentinel into a Sun-synchronous orbit at 693 km altitude. The satellite separated from the upper stage 23 min 24 sec after liftoff.

Sentinel-1 is the first in the family of satellites for Europe’s Copernicus program. It carries an advanced radar to scan Earth’s surface in all weather conditions and regardless of whether it is day or night. This new mission will be used to care for many aspects of our environment, from detecting and tracking oil spills and mapping sea ice to monitoring movement in land surfaces and mapping changes in the way land is used.

Video credit: Arianespace/ESA/Roscosmos; Music written by M. Oldfield/copyright EMI Virgin

Update: A slightly longer version of the video can be found here: Onboard Cameras Show Full Launch and Separation of Sentinel-1A.

Guitar-Shaped Memorial Forest in Argentina

Located in the fertile agricultural region of Argentina's Pampas is a guitar-shaped forest made up of cypress and eucalyptus trees. An Argentinian farmer planted the forest in memory of his departed wife. The image was acquired November 2, 2007, covers an area of 10.2 by 12.3 km, and is located at 33.9 degrees south, 64 degrees west.

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

Arctic Melt Season Lengthens

A new study by researchers from the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) and NASA shows that the length of the melt season for Arctic sea ice is growing by several days each decade. An earlier start to the melt season is allowing the Arctic Ocean to absorb enough additional solar radiation in some places to melt as much as four feet of the Arctic ice cap’s thickness.

"The Arctic is warming and this is causing the melt season to last longer," said Julienne Stroeve, a senior scientist at NSIDC, Boulder and lead author of the new study, which has been accepted for publication in Geophysical Research Letters. "The lengthening of the melt season is allowing for more of the sun’s energy to get stored in the ocean and increase ice melt during the summer, overall weakening the sea ice cover."

Arctic sea ice has been in sharp decline during the last four decades. The sea ice cover is shrinking and thinning, making scientists think an ice-free Arctic Ocean during the summer might be reached this century. The seven lowest September sea ice extents in the satellite record have all occurred in the past seven years.

To study the evolution of sea ice melt onset and freeze-up dates from 1979 to the present day, Stroeve’s team used passive microwave data from NASA’s Nimbus-7 Scanning Multichannel Microwave Radiometer, and the Special Sensor Microwave/Imager and the Special Sensor Microwave Imager and Sounder carried on board Defense Meteorological Satellite Program spacecraft. When ice and snow begin to melt, the presence of water causes spikes in the microwave radiation that the snow grains emit, which these sensors can detect.

Results show that although the melt season is lengthening at both ends, with an earlier melt onset in the spring and a later freeze-up in the fall, the predominant phenomenon extending the melting is the later start of the freeze season. Some areas, such as the Beaufort and Chukchi Seas, are freezing up between six and 11 days later per decade. Although melt onset variations are smaller, the timing of the beginning of the melt season has a larger impact on the amount of solar radiation absorbed by the ocean, because its timing coincides with when the sun is higher and brighter in the Arctic sky.

Despite large regional variations in the beginning and end of the melt season, the Arctic melt season has lengthened on average by five days per decade from 1979 to 2013.

Video credit: NASA

Cento, Italy

Hundreds of fields speckle the northern Italian landscape south of the Po River in this satellite image.

Agriculture is one of the main economic uses of the Po Basin because of the fertile soils, and this image clearly shows a landscape dominated by fields.

Throughout Italy’s history, agricultural landowners would often divide their properties among their male heirs. Generation after generation, land would be further fragmented, resulting in the millions of small plots found across the country today.

Optical satellite imagery like this can be used to monitor agriculture and changing landscapes. Satellites can provide the information necessary to make informed decisions on agricultural management, including yield prediction, irrigation, planting, pricing and regional need for food assistance if a harvest is likely to fail.

At the very bottom of the image, foothills of the Apennine mountains appear dark green.

The city of Bologna is visible in the lower-right corner, and Modena can be seen on the left. Two roads cutting across the flat Po Valley provide a nearly straight route between the cities.

The city of Cento – which means ‘hundred’ in Italian – is located in the upper-right section of the image on the Reno river.

This image, captured by Japan’s ALOS satellite on 4 July 2010, was selected to mark the 100th regular edition of the Earth from Space video program, which we launched in November 2011.

Photo credit: JAXA/ESA

Italy

Astronauts on the International Space Station fly over our planet at around 300 km altitude. From that distance it is not always easy to distinguish countries and cities – political borders cannot be seen from space. This image however clearly shows Italy’s distinctive outline as it contrasts with the blackness of the Mediterranean Sea at night.

The lights to the north of Italy that houses much industry stop more or less at the border with France, Switzerland and Austria. The cities of Turin and Milan show up brightly, as do Rome and Naples further to the south.

The island of Sicily can be seen at the bottom-right of this image with Italy’s other large island, Sardinia, to the left. Above, and almost touching Sardinia, is the island of Corsica that is not part of Italy.

The line of lights following the northern contours of the Mediterranean Sea is the French coastline known as the ‘Côte d’Azur’ or French Riviera.

The thin green line following Earth’s curve is our atmosphere that keeps us warm, protects us from the Sun and cosmic rays as well as the vacuum of space. These images from space show how populated and industrialized Europe is and the enormous impact humans have on our planet.

Photo credit: ESA/NASA

Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 (OCO-2)

Technicians prep the OCO-2 instrument for shipping at JPL. The instrument consists of three parallel, high-resolution spectrometers, integrated into a common structure and fed by a common telescope. Each spectrometer spreads reflected sunlight into its various colors like a prism, focusing on a different, narrow color range to detect light with the specific colors absorbed by carbon dioxide and molecular oxygen. The amount of light absorbed at these specific colors is proportional to the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Note: For more information, see NASA's OCO-2 Brings Sharp Focus on Global Carbon.

Surface Displacement Map for 28 March 2014 La Habra Earthquake

Scientists at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, developed a model of the March 28, 2014, magnitude 5.1 La Habra, California earthquake, based on the distribution of aftershocks and other seismic information from the U.S. Geological Survey. This image shows what the earthquake may look like to an interferometric synthetic aperture radar, such as NASA's Uninhabited Aerial Vehicle Synthetic Aperture Radar (UAVSAR).

The earthquake is believed to be associated with the Puente Hills Thrust fault, which zig-zags from Orange County northwest through downtown Los Angeles. The NASA model is based on a fault estimated to be 9 kilometers long, 5 kilometers deep and 3 kilometers wide. The modeled fault dips upward through the ground at a 60-degree angle, with one side of the fault moving at a slanted angle horizontally and vertically 10 centimeters relative to the other side. The model estimated the maximum displacement of Earth's surface from the quake at approximately 1 centimeter, which is at the threshold of what is detectable with UAVSAR. The region of ground displacement is indicated by the darker blue area located in the right center of the image.

In November 2008, NASA JPL scientists began conducting a series of UAVSAR flights over regions of Northern and Southern California that are actively deforming and are marked by frequent earthquakes. About every six months, the scientists precisely repeat the same flight paths to produce images of ground deformation called interferograms. From these data, 3-D maps are being created for regions of interest, including the San Andreas and other California faults, extending from the Gulf of California in Mexico to Santa Rosa in the northern San Francisco Bay.

UAVSAR, which flies on a NASA C20-A III aircraft from NASA's Armstrong Flight Research Center, measures ground deformation over large areas to a precision of 0.1 to 0.5 centimeters (0.04 to 0.2 inches).

By comparing the repeat-pass radar observations, scientists hope to measure any crustal deformations that may occur between observations, allowing them to 'see' the amount of strain building up on fault lines, and giving them a clearer picture of which faults are active and at what rates they're moving, both before earthquakes and after them. The UAVSAR fault mapping project is designed to substantially improve knowledge of regional earthquake hazards in California. The 3-D UAVSAR data will allow scientists to bring entire faults into focus, allowing them to understand faults not just at their surfaces, but also at depth. When integrated into computer models, the data should give scientists a much clearer picture of California's complex fault systems.

The scientists are estimating the total displacement occurring in each region. As additional observations are collected, they expect to be able to determine how strain is partitioned between individual faults.

The UAVSAR flights serve as a baseline for pre-earthquake activity. As earthquakes occur during the course of this project, the team is measuring the deformation at the time of the earthquakes to determine the distribution of slip on the faults, and then monitoring longer-term motions after the earthquakes to learn more about fault zone properties.

Airborne UAVSAR mapping can allow a rapid response after an earthquake to determine what fault was the source and which parts of the fault slipped during the earthquake. Information about the earthquake source can be used to estimate what areas were most affected by the earthquake shaking to guide rescue and damage assessment response.

The scientists now plan to acquire UAVSAR data from the region, possibly as soon as this week, and process the data to validate and improve the results of their model.

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/USGS/Google Earth

Note: For more information, see NASA Model Provides a 3-D Look at L.A.-area Quake.

Satellite Shows High Productivity from U.S. Corn Belt

The magnitude of fluorescence portrayed in this visualization prompted researchers to take a closer look at the productivity of the U.S. Corn Belt. The glow represents fluorescence measured from land plants in early July, over a period from 2007 to 2011.

Data from satellite sensors show that during the Northern Hemisphere's growing season, the Midwest region of the United States boasts more photosynthetic activity than any other spot on Earth, according to NASA and university scientists.

Healthy plants convert light to energy via photosynthesis, but chlorophyll also emits a fraction of absorbed light as a fluorescent glow that is invisible to the naked eye. The magnitude of the glow is an excellent indicator of the amount of photosynthesis, or gross productivity, of plants in a given region.

Research in 2013, led by Joanna Joiner of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, demonstrated that fluorescence from plants could be teased out from existing data from satellites that were designed and built for other purposes. The new research, led by Luis Guanter of the Freie Universität Berlin, used the data for the first time to estimate photosynthesis from agriculture. Results were published March 25 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

According to co-author Christian Frankenberg of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., "The paper shows that fluorescence is a much better proxy for agricultural productivity than anything we've had before. This can go a long way regarding monitoring -- and maybe even predicting -- regional crop yields."

Guanter, Joiner and Frankenberg launched their collaboration at a 2012 workshop, hosted by the Keck Institute for Space Studies at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in Pasadena, to explore measurements of photosynthesis from space. The team noticed that on an annual basis, the tropics are the most active in photosynthesis. But during the Northern Hemisphere's growing season, the U.S. Corn Belt "really stands out," Frankenberg said. "Areas all over the world are not as productive as this area."

The researchers set out to describe the phenomenon observed by carefully interpreting data from the Global Ozone Monitoring Experiment 2 (GOME-2) on Metop-A, a European meteorological satellite. Data showed that fluorescence from the U.S. Corn Belt peaks in July at levels 40 percent greater than those observed in the Amazon.

Comparison with ground-based measurements from carbon flux towers and yield statistics confirmed the results.

"The match between ground-based measurements and satellite measurements was a pleasant surprise," said Joiner, a co-author on the paper.

Ground-based measurements have a resolution of about 0.4 square mile (1 square kilometer), while the satellite measurements currently have a resolution of more than 1,158 square miles (3,000 square kilometers). The study confirms that even with coarse resolution, the satellite method could estimate the photosynthetic activity occurring inside plants at the molecular level for areas with relatively homogenous vegetation like the Corn Belt.

Challenges remain in estimating the productivity of fragmented agricultural areas not properly sampled by current space-borne instruments. That's where missions with better resolution could help, such as NASA's Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 (OCO-2) -- a mission planned for launch in July 2014 that will also measure solar-induced fluorescence.

The research could also help scientists improve the computer models that simulate Earth's carbon cycle, as Guanter found a strong underestimation of crop photosynthesis in models. The analysis revealed that carbon cycle models -- which scientists use to understand how carbon cycles through the ocean, land and atmosphere over time -- underestimate the productivity of the U.S. Corn Belt by 40 to 60 percent.

Unlike most vegetation, food crops are managed to maximize productivity. They usually have access to abundant nutrients and are irrigated. The U.S. Corn Belt, for example, receives water from the Mississippi River. Accounting for the region's irrigation is currently a challenge for models, which is one reason why they underestimate agricultural productivity.

"If we don't take into account irrigation and other human influences in the agricultural areas, we're not going to correctly estimate the amount of carbon taken up by vegetation, particularly corn," Joiner said. "Corn plants are very productive in terms of assimilating carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. This needs to be accounted for going forward in trying to predict how much of the atmospheric carbon dioxide will be taken up by crops in a changing climate."

According to Frankenberg, the remote sensing-based techniques now available could be a powerful monitoring tool for food security, especially data from OCO-2 in combination with data from other upcoming satellites such as NASA's Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP), scheduled for launch later this year.

Image credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

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

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

Tianjin, China

Tianjin, China, lies around 100 km southeast of Beijing near China’s eastern coast. At the top right of this image – taken from the International Space Station at night – is the Tianjin Port welcoming ships from the Bohai Bay.

The street lighting in Tianjin is interesting as it shows two different colors, presumably from different lighting technologies. At night the dual urban areas of Tianjin show up clearly with the center and old city in the middle and the newer urban city of Binhai to the right along with the port.

The other two lit-up areas in this image are the cities of Wuqing on the road to Beijing heading North (to the left here) and Jinnan below Binhai.

Tianjin is the fourth largest city of China with over 12 million inhabitants. This image was taken by an astronaut from the International Space Station using Nightpod: ESA’s camera aid that tracks the motion of Earth as our planet flies underneath the orbital outpost at 28,800 km/h. The resulting images are sharper than if an astronaut compensates for the Earth’s rotation by hand.

Photo credit: ESA/NASA

Hofsjökull Ice Cap, Iceland

This image shows a small part of the Hofsjökull ice cap in Iceland, which encompasses several glaciers. The fan at upper left is part of a glacier called Mûlajökul.

The above map shows the flight path (red lines) for a single flight to map flow speeds across two ice caps with the UAVSAR instrument. Each five-hour flight will follow this same complicated path for optimal coverage. The ice caps appear in white in the center of the tangled flight lines; Langjökull is west (left) of Hofsjökull. Keflavik International Airport is on the peninsula in the southwest.

A high-precision radar instrument from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, left Southern California for Iceland today to create detailed maps of how glaciers move in the dead of winter. This will help scientists better understand some of the most basic processes involved in melting glaciers, which are major contributors to rising sea levels.

Photo and map credit: Caltech

Note: For more information, see NASA Radar Maps the Winter Pace of Iceland's Glaciers.

Kilimanjaro, Tanzania

This false-color image from Japan’s ALOS satellite was acquired over part of southern Kenya and the border with Tanzania.

Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania can be seen in the lower-left corner. At 5895 m above sea level, this dormant volcano is Africa’s highest mountain.

Kilimanjaro is a critical water catchment area for both Kenya and Tanzania, but over the past century more than 80% of its ice cover – which acts as a water storage – has disappeared. The receding ice cap together with deforestation have caused several rivers to dry up, affecting forests and farmland below.

In this image, bright red areas show the rich vegetation of the forested area on the slopes of Kilimanjaro, as well as vegetation of the agricultural areas and along rivers and streams.

False color allows for better discrimination between different vegetation types. This is particularly helpful when satellite data are used in agricultural monitoring for mapping and classifying land use, crop type, crop health, change detection, irrigated landscape mapping and crop area mapping.

The upper section of the image is dominated by plains in southern Kenya. Nearby are a number of national parks (not shown) that attract tourists looking to see the wildlife. Animals found in this area include elephants, cape buffalo, lion, giraffe, zebra and wildebeest, among many others.

This image, also featured in the Earth from Space video program, was acquired on 20 March 2009.

Image credit: JAXA/ESA

Rome, Italy

Italy’s capital city shows a distinctive patchwork of lights and darker areas when seen from the International Space Station at night. Unlike England’s capital city, Rome’s A90 ring road, the “Grande Raccordo Anulare”, is not so visible due to different motorway lighting. No single point of interest strikes out from the patchwork of roads, parks and green areas.

Rome was famously founded along the Tiber river, seen here winding its way downwards to the bottom of the image, but even the Tiber river gets lost in the sea of light at the center of Rome. The dark patches are parks, ancient ruins and green areas without street lighting. To the bottom right of this picture is the hilly area and regional park of Decima-Malafede where humans have not settled. Instead Rome has expanded over the years in other directions. At the top of this picture, newer, sub-urban settlements are characterized by the straight streets.

ESA’s center for Earth Observation at the ESRIN facility near Frascati can be seen to the right of this picture, above the blackness of Albano lake.

Clouds covered parts of Rome and caused the blurry areas at the bottom half of this picture taken 12 December 2013 by an Expedition 38 astronaut.

Image credit: ESA/NASA