Norwegian Fringes

The animation, which is based on an interferogram generated with two radar images captured by Sentinel-1A in ‘Interferometric Wide-Swath’ mode on 11 and 23 August 2014, mainly shows topography around the northern coast of Norway. Although Sentinel-1A is still being commissioned, this new result demonstrates how useful it will be to map the shape of the land and monitor ground movement. Synthetic aperture radar interferometry – or InSAR – is a technique where two or more satellite radar images acquired over the same area are combined to map topography and detect surface changes. Small changes on the ground cause changes in the radar signal phase and lead to the rainbow-colored fringes of an ‘interferogram’. In this case, the animation denotes differences in topography.

Since the area around the Lyngen Alps is particularly prone to landslides, it is closely monitored. Large landslides that suddenly shift rock into the sea could potentially create tsunami-like waves. In 1810, such a wave destroyed a village, and, history shows that this kind of natural disaster occurs a couple of times every 100 years in Norway. InSAR is an important tool used by the Norwegian authorities to map rockslide hazards nationwide. The unprecedented coverage offered by the Sentinel-1 mission will significantly increase the value of InSAR data for this purpose.

Video credit: Copernicus data (2014)/ESA/Norut–SEOM Insarap study (video animation data: Norwegian Mapping Authority and NASA)

Note: For more information, see Norway Relief. For similar images, one featuring northwestern Italy and part of Corsica and the other featuring Mount Etna on the island of Sicily, see New Views From Sentinel-1A and Etna Slopes, respectively.

Towing the Costa Concordia

This Sentinel-1A image was acquired on 26 July 2014 over the coast of northwestern Italy while the Costa Concordia cruise ship (enlarged) was being towed towards the city of Genoa.

The ship capsized near the island of Giglio in January 2012. Following more than two years of salvage operations, the ship began its final journey under tow on 23 July 2014, arriving at the port of Genoa four days later.

During and after the towing, satellite radar images – such as the one here – were analyzed, with the technical support of the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre. This was done for scientific research purposes to assess the Sentinel-1A and other satellite radar images for pollution and ship traffic.

Sentinel-1A is the first satellite launched for Europe’s Copernicus environment monitoring program. Surveillance of the marine environment, including oil-spill monitoring and ship detection, is one of the mission’s main tasks. Although Sentinel-1A is still being commissioned to prepare for routine operations, early images like this demonstrate the value of its radar vision.

The Copernicus program also supported recovery operations of the Costa Concordia. Learn more.

Image credit: ESA

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

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

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

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.

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

Mount Etna Eruption

Mount Etna on the Italian island of Sicily is Europe's most active volcano. Its latest series of eruptions has continued for weeks, producing ash clouds that forced the closure of nearby Catania airport; lava flows that stretched from the summit to the south and southeast; and spectacular fire fountains. In this nighttime thermal image acquired December 12, 2013 by the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) instrument on NASA's Terra spacecraft, the lava flows are white (hot), emanating from the southeast crater. The image covers an area of 19.5 by 19.5 miles (31.5 by 31.5 kilometers), and is located at 37.7 degrees north latitude, 15 degrees east longitude.

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

Flooding in Sardinia

In mid-November 2013, extratropical cyclone Cleopatra brought devastating flooding to the Italian island of Sardinia that has claimed at least 18 lives and led to the declaration of a state of emergency for the island. To assist in the disaster response efforts, scientists at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, in collaboration with the Italian Space Agency and Università degli studi della Basilicata, generated this preliminary version of a flood proxy map for inundated regions in Sardinia.

Areas of strong blue on the map are regions that have likely experienced flooding. The blue color represents a decrease of radar signal echo on November 18, 2013 compared to data from October 17, 2013. The decreased radar signal echo is likely to have been caused by water covering land (water has a smooth surface, which results in a weaker echo signal, while land has a rough surface and stronger echo). Flat regions that are colored dark blue can be interpreted as likely flooded regions, but other areas need further analysis before interpreting. Some distortion in the geolocation of this preliminary product is present in areas of high relief.

The approximately 5 by 12 miles (8 by 20 kilometers) map covers the region marked by the red rectangular box in the larger, 137 mile (220 kilometer) long overview image of Sardinia shown above processed by JPL's Advanced Rapid Imaging and Analysis (ARIA) team using X-band interferometric synthetic aperture radar data from the Italian Space Agency's COSMO-SkyMed satellite constellation. The technique uses a prototype algorithm to rapidly detect surface changes caused by natural or human-produced damage. It was processed as part of a joint collaboration between JPL, Caltech, the Italian Space Agency (ASI) Centro Interpretazione Dati di Osservazione della Terra (CIDOT) and the Università degli studi della Basilicata. Image processing was implemented using the JPL Interometric Synthetic Aperture Radar Scientific Computing Environment (ISCE) software package, and the amplitude images were registered to the NASA Shuttle Radar Topography Mission Plus digital elevation model with a resolution of 1 arc second. Individual pixel size of the flood map is about 98 feet (30 meters) across.

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASI

Naples, Italy

Taken at night from the International Space Station this picture is easily recognizable as Naples, Italy because of the black hole in the bright lights: Mount Vesuvius. Understandably, few people live on the still-active volcano meaning no street lights or houses illuminate the area.

The center of Naples is slightly above and to the left - the brightest part of the image. To the left is the Mediterranean Sea with the islands of Ischia, Procida and Capri lit-up to reveal human presence.

The image was taken on a clear night from 400 km above but it was not cloud free around Naples. The top half of the image shows gray clouds.

This image was taken with the Nightpod camera-stand that tracks the movement of Earth passing under the International Space Station at 28,800 km/h, 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

Venice Land Subsidence

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Venice has been subject to floodings for hundreds of years and the problem is increasing due to sea level rise and a constant subsidence of the city.

Radar data - like it will be delivered from the first GMES satellite - are providing the means for a continuous monitoring of ground movement with an accuracy of a few millimeters per year.

Video credit: ESA/DLR

Po River, Italy

This image is a compilation of three radar images from the Japanese ALOS satellite and shows the Po River, which flows over 650 km from west to east across northern Italy as the country’s longest river. 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. Branching off of the river in the center of the image and snaking through the landscape to the lower-right corner is the Po di Goro, one of the main channels of the Po Delta. The section of the main river pictured and the Po di Goro form the border of the Italy’s Veneto (north) and Emilia–Romagna (south) regions.

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

Image credit: JAXA/ESA

Lake Garda, Italy

Italy’s Lake Garda and the city of Verona south of the Italian Alps are pictured in this image from ALOS observation satellite. With an area of 370 sq km, Garda is the largest lake in Italy and the third largest in the Alpine region. East of the lake is the Adige River, flowing south before curving east toward Verona. The city of Verona has been awarded World Heritage Site status by UNESCO because of its urban structure and architecture – among them the circular Roman amphitheater, visible when zooming in.

Photo credit: JAXA/ESA

Italy at Night

This nighttime panorama of much of Europe was photographed by one of the Expedition 30 crew members aboard the International Space Station flying approximately 240 miles above the Tyrrhenian Sea on January 25, 2012. Most of the country of Italy is visible running horizontally across the center of the frame, with the night lights of Rome and Naples being visible to the left and right of center, respectively. Sardinia and Corsica are in the lower left quadrant of the photo. The Adriatic Sea is on the other side of Italy, and beyond it to the east and north can be seen parts of several other European nations.

Photo credit:

The Alps

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

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

Photo credit: ESA