MAGNIFICENT VIEWS OF EARTH FROM SPACE

Some of my earlier posts, such as the The Best Science Photos of the Week series (for example here), have shown images of outer space captured from Earth by observatories or from spacecraft in space. There have been very few images, for example the Blue Marble Earth, of Earth from above.

Here’s a selection of magnificent satellite images of Earth captured by the European Space Agency (ESA).

Earth From Space
By European Space Agency (Observing the Earth Page).

1. ‘Black Hole’ (Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico)

Holbox Island and the Yalahau Lagoon on the northeast corner of Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula are featured in this satellite image. Holbox is a 42-km-long island running along the peninsula’s coast that is separated from the mainland by Yalahau Lagoon. One of the world’s most important ecosystems, Holbox and its surrounding waters are part of the Yum Balam Biosphere Reserve. Its unspoiled beaches of fine white coralline sands are important for turtle nesting, and over 500 bird species can be found here. [Read full description]

2. Central Europe

This Envisat image features an almost cloud-free look at a large portion of Europe. The Alps, with its white peaks, stand out in contrast against the vast areas still covered in brownish winter foliage. Occupying an area of about 200 000 sq km, south central Europe’s great mountain system extends some 1200 km from the coastline of southern France (bottom left) into Switzerland (east of France), Italy (bottom right) and Austria (east of Switzerland). It then runs down through Slovenia (south of Austria), Croatia (bottom right side), Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia and Montenegro before ending in Albania. Several dark blue European lakes also stand out. The crescent-shaped Lake Geneva (north of Alps) is Europe’s largest Alpine lake. Its northern part is located in Switzerland, and its southern part in France. [Read full description]

3. Dust and Plankton in the Atlantic

Envisat captures dust and sand from the Algerian Sahara Desert, located in northern Africa, blowing west across the Atlantic Ocean last week. Stretching across the eastern Atlantic, strong winds carry the plume over the northwestern tip of the Iberian Peninsula (bottom), the western tip of France, the southwestern tip of England (top right) and the southwestern coast of Ireland (top left). Dust from the Sahara Desert – the world’s largest desert, encompassing around 8.6 million sq km – can be transported over thousands of kilometres by atmospheric convection currents. These convection currents form when warm, lighter air rises and cold, heavier air sinks. Sandstorms are very common over the Sahara, and large concentrations of the dust can be found in the tropical Atlantic and the Caribbean. The dust contains many nutrients, including nitrogen, phosphorus and iron, which act as a fertiliser and stimulate the production of massive plankton blooms. In this image, plankton blooms are visible in the Atlantic as blue and green swirls. (The various shades of green and tan in the English Channel and around Wales are due to sediments being transported in the water.) [Read full description]

4. African Gem (Namibia and South Africa)

This Envisat image shows southern Namibia and northern South Africa on Africa’s lower-west coast. We can clearly see the sand dunes of the Namib Desert – considered to be the oldest desert in the world. Partially located within the Namib-Naukluft National Park, it is also the site of some of the world’s tallest dunes, rising over 300 m in height. These dunes slope down into the Sossusvlei salt and clay pan. [Read full description]

5. Aegean Islands (Crete, Greece)

This Envisat image is dominated by the island of Crete separating the Aegean and Libyan Seas in the eastern Mediterranean. The largest and most populous of the Greek islands, Crete is home to numerous beaches, fertile plateaus, caves and high mountains. Located at the centre of the island, Mount Psiloritis (also known as Mount Ida) towers over the others at 2454 m. According to Greek mythology, the god of sky and thunder – Zeus – was born in a cave here. [Read full description]

6. A Gush of Volcanic Gas (Chile)

This image shows the huge plume of sulphur dioxide that spewed from Chile’s Puyehue-Cordón Caulle Volcanic Complex, which lies in the Andes about 600 km south of Santiago. After lying dormant for more than 50 years, a series of rumbling earthquakes signalled the beginnings of this major volcanic eruption. On 4 June, a fissure opened, sending a towering plume of volcanic ash and gas over 10 km high. Several thousand people were evacuated as a thick layer of ash and pumice fell and blanketed a wide area. Airports in Chile and Argentina were closed as a result. The image was generated on 6 June using data from the Infrared Atmospheric Sounding Interferometer on Eumetsat’s MetOp-A satellite. As the eruption continued, the image shows how strong winds initially swept the broad plume of sulphur dioxide northwards and then eastwards across Argentina and out over the southern Atlantic Ocean. [Read full description]

7. Madagascar Jellyfish (Madagascar)

The Betsiboka estuary in northwest Madagascar is pictured in this image from Japan’s ALOS observation satellite. Here, the country’s largest river flows into Bombetoka Bay, which then opens into the Mozambique Channel. The red colouring of the sandbars and islands between the 'jellyfish tentacles' comes from sediments washed from hills and into the streams and rivers during heavy rain. Mangroves are the predominant vegetation along the islands’ coastlines, sheltering mollusc and crustacean communities and serving as a habitat for sea turtles, dugongs and birds. The seaport city of Mahajanga can be seen in the upper-left corner of the image. It is home to about 130 000 people and is an ideal tourist destination because most of the year is hot and dry. In the lower-right corner is Marovoay, where the majority of the some 65 000 inhabitants are farmers. [Read full description]

8. Volcanic Canaries (Canary Islands)

The subtropical Canary Islands off Africa’s west coast are pictured in this Envisat image. The Canary Islands’ favourable climate and beaches attract over 12 million visitors per year. Perhaps some beach-goers were on those aircraft that left the multiple contrails over the dark blue water to the north. Because the archipelago is far away from areas with high light pollution like big cities, it is an ideal location for astronomical observations. The island of La Palma is home to the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory and the Teide Observatory is on the island of Tenerife. Also on Tenerife is the world’s third largest volcano, Teide. Similarities in environmental and geological conditions between Teide National Park and the planet Mars have turned this area into a testing ground for instruments that will travel to the red planet. [Read full description]

9. A Southern Summer Bloom (South Atlantic Ocean)

In this Envisat image, a phytoplankton bloom swirls a figure-of-8 in the South Atlantic Ocean about 600 km east of the Falkland Islands. During this period in the southern hemisphere, the ocean becomes rich in minerals from the mixing of surface waters with deeper waters. Phytoplankton depend on these minerals, making blooms like this common in the spring and summer. These microscopic organisms are the base of the marine food chain, and play a huge role in the removal of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and the production of oxygen in the oceans. By helping to regulate the carbon cycle, phytoplankton are important to the global climate system. Different types and quantities of phytoplankton exhibit different colours, such as the blues and greens in this image. [Read full description]

10. Cradle of Humankind (The Horn of Africa)

This Envisat image of the Horn of Africa shows parts of Ethiopia, Eritrea, Djibouti and, to the northeast across the Red Sea, a portion of Yemen’s west coast. The region is widely considered to be where early Homo sapiens emerged some 400,000 years ago. The lighter-coloured area to the east is known as the Afar Triangle and includes the Danakil Desert. Extremely hot and dry, the deepest point in this volcano-ridden depression lies 100 m below sea level. Continuous volcanic activity produces hot springs and major minerals. Salt mining is the main industry in the desert, cut by hand and loaded onto camels for transport. [Read full description]

See more stunning images here and here.

[Source: European Space Agency (index page for the above images). Edited.]