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

Morocco and Algeria

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

Photo credit: ESA