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The Himalayas

Himalayas

This false-color image shows snow-capped peaks and ridges of the eastern Himalayas between major rivers in southwest China. The Himalayas are made up of three parallel mountain ranges that together stretch for more than 1800 miles (2,900 kilometers). This particular image was taken by NASA’s Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER), flying aboard the Terra satellite, on February 27, 2002. The picture is a composite made by combining near-infrared, red and green wavelengths.

Credit

Image provided by the USGS EROS Data Center Satellite Systems Branch, as part of the Earth as Art II image series. Caption adapted from text provided by NASA’s Earth Observatory. Source: ASTER; NASA Earth Observatory.

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This image, taken on January 21, 2005, shows a collision between two of the largest floating objects in the world, the Drygalski Ice Tongue and iceberg "B15-A" in Antarctica (B15-A is on the right). The 43-mile- (70-kilometer-) long Drygalski Ice Tongue juts out from the icy land of Antarctica into McMurdo Sound like a pier, and is a floating extension of the land-based David Glacier. B15-A, 75 miles (120 kilometers) long, had been drifting slowly towards Drygalski for months before this image was taken. The presence of B15-A complicated supply trips to the nearby McMurdo science base and endangered penguins in the area by blocking their access to open sea. The perspective we get from space allows us to see the scale and scope of changes to these massive bodies of ice that we could not see in any other way.
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Drygalski Ice Tongue, Antar...
Drygalski Ice Tongue, Antarctica
With autumn's arrival, chlorophyll begins to cede its dominance in the photosynthetic process, revealing yellow and orange tones on land, while in the ocean and lakes, phytoplankton pigments highlight different water masses and current systems.
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Photosynthetic pigments by land and sea
This image, taken on 4 July 2002, shows spiraling eddies known as von Karman vortices over Alaska’s Aleutian Islands. Such eddies form as air flows over and around objects in its path. In this case, these eddies were created when prevailing winds sweeping east across the northern Pacific Ocean encountered Alaska’s Aleutian Islands.
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A changing landscape in the heart of Madagascar, showing drainage into the sea in the Betsiboka Estuary due to decimation of rainforests and coastal mangroves. 
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The heart of Madagascar
The heart of Madagascar
In this image, we see blue silt off the southern coast of Louisiana as the Mississippi River flows off into the Gulf of Mexico. The brightness and shade of blue depends on the density of the silt and the depth of the silt-carrying currents in the water. The small bright dots in the scene are fishing boats and oil platforms.
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In the style of Van Gogh's painting 'Starry Night,' massive congregations of greenish phytoplankton swirl in the dark water around Gotland, a Swedish island in the Baltic Sea. Phytoplankton are microscopic marine plants that form the first link in nearly all ocean food chains. Population explosions, or blooms, of phytoplankton, like the one shown here, occur when deep currents bring nutrients up to sunlit surface waters, fueling the growth and reproduction of these tiny plants. Image taken by Landsat 7 on July 13, 2005.
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These night-shining clouds were spotted over Billund, Denmark on July 15, 2010. These rare clouds are technically called "noctilucent" or "polar mesospheric" clouds, and form at high altitudes, 80 to 85 kilometers (50 to 53 miles) high, where the mesosphere is located. The clouds' high position in the atmosphere allows them to reflect sunlight long after the sun has dropped below the horizon. They only form when the temperature drops below –130 degrees Celsius (-200 degrees Fahrenheit), whereupon the scant amount of water high in the atmosphere freezes into ice clouds. This happens most often in countries at high northern and southern latitudes (above 50 degrees) in the summer, when the mesosphere is coldest. Studies suggest that night-shining clouds are becoming brighter and more common, which is linked to the mesosphere getting colder and more humid. These changes may be happening because of increased levels of heat-trapping greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and methane in the atmosphere. In the mesosphere, carbon dioxide radiates heat into space, causing cooling. More methane, on the other hand, puts more water vapor into the atmosphere, because sunlight breaks methane up into water molecules at high altitudes. Research is ongoing.
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Nocturnal Wonders
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This simulated natural color image shows the Coco River, between Nicaragua and Honduras, as seen from space on December 5, 2002. As it makes its way to the Caribbean Sea, the Coco River forms the border between the two countries. The coastline, known as the Mosquito Coast, is of low relief and has plentiful water bodies, relic shorelines and high temperatures. Mosquito Coast derives its name from its principal inhabitants, the Miskito Indians, whose name was corrupted into Mosquito by European settlers. The Mosquito Indians, of whom there are several tribes, are short in stature and very dark-skinned. The first European settlement in the Mosquito country started in 1630, when agents of the English-chartered Providence Company established friendly relations with the local inhabitants. The image shown covers an area of 29 x 39 kilometers (18 x 24 miles).
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This simulated natural colo...
Coco River, Nicaragua and Honduras
NASA's Landsat 8 satellite captured water mixing between Georgia's ick-colored Suwannee River and the deep blue Gulf of Mexico.
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Manam Volcano in Papua New Guinea, as seen from space on June 16, 2010. Located 13 kilometers (8 miles) off the coast of mainland Papua New Guinea, Manam forms an island 10 kilometers (6 miles) wide. It is a stratovolcano. The volcano has two summit craters, and although both are active, most historical eruptions have arisen from the southern crater. On June 16, the volcano released a thin, faint plume as clouds clustered at the volcano's summit. Rivulets of brown rock interrupt the carpet of green vegetation on the volcano’s slopes. White clouds partially obscure the satellite’s view of Manam. The clouds may be the result of water vapor from the volcano, but they may also have formed independently of volcanic activity. The volcanic plume appears as a thin blue-gray veil extending toward the northwest over the Bismarck Sea.
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This image, taken on 10 May 2001, shows one of the islands of New Caledonia, an archipelago 1200 kilometers (750 miles) east of Australia. New Caledonia contains the world’s third-largest coral reef structure, and its coral reefs support an unusually large diversity of species, including many predators, big fish, turtles, and the world’s third-largest dugong population. (Dugongs are large marine mammals.) In this natural-color image, the islands appear in shades of green and brown — mixtures of vegetation and bare ground. The surrounding waters range from pale aquamarine to deep blue, and the color differences reflect varying water depths. Over coral reef ridges and sand bars, the water is shallowest and palest in color.
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Blue Lagoon
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BLUE MARBLE: This spectacul...
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This scar on an arid landscape is the dry riverbed of the Ghadamis River in the Tinrhert Hamada Mountains near Ghadamis, Libya. This image was acquired by the Landsat 7 satellite on November 6, 2000. This is a false-color composite image made using near-infrared, green, and blue wavelengths. The image has also been sharpened using the sensor’s panchromatic band.
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Ghadamis River in Libya
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Lake Chad, Africa; February 7 and 11, 2004. Once serving as part of the floor for a much larger Lake Chad, the area now known as the Bodele Depression, located at the southern edge of the Sahara Desert in north central Africa, is slowly being transformed into a desert landscape. In the mid-1960s, Lake Chad was about the size of Lake Erie. But persistent drought conditions, coupled with increased demand for freshwater for irrigation, have reduced Lake Chad to about 5 percent of its former size. As the waters receded, the silts and sediments resting on the lakebed were left to dry in the scorching African sun. The small grains of the silty sand are easily swept up by the strong wind gusts that occasionally blow over the region. Once heaved aloft, the dust can be carried for hundreds or even thousands of kilometers. The remnants of Lake Chad appear in olive-green amid the tan and light brown hues of the surrounding landscape where the countries of Chad, Niger, Nigeria and Cameroon all share borders. The Bodele Depression was the source of some very impressive dust storms that swept over West Africa and the Cape Verde Islands in February 2004, the date of this image.
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Lake Chad, Africa; February...
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Phytoplankton bloom off western Iceland; 24 June, 2010. Taken by NASA's Aqua satellite.
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Phytoplankton bloom off wes...
Phytoplankton bloom
This interesting image shows the world’s largest glacier, Lambert Glacier in Antarctica, and icefall that flows into it. Ice flows like water, albeit much more slowly. Cracks can be seen in this icefall as it bends and twists on its slow descent 1300 feet (400 meters) to the glacier below. The image was taken by the Landsat-7 satellite on December 2, 2000 and is a false-color composite made from infrared, red and green wavelengths. The image has also been sharpened using the sensor’s panchromatic band.
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The Maldives
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The Republic of Maldives is a country located in the Indian Ocean, southwest of India.
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Republic of Maldives
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Guinea-Bissau is a small country in West Africa. Complex patterns can be seen in the shallow waters along its coastline, where silt carried by the Geba and other rivers washes out into the Atlantic Ocean. Image taken by Landsat 7 on December 1, 2000.
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GUINEA-BISSAU COAST: Guinea...
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This stunning image, taken on July 27, 2000, shows the Lena River in Russia, one of the largest rivers in the world, which is some 2,800 miles (4,400 kilometers) long. The Lena Delta Reserve is the most extensive protected wilderness area in Russia. It is animportant refuge and breeding ground for many species of Siberian wildlife. Original high-resolution image here.
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This stunning image, taken ...
Lena Delta, Russia
The sun sets over NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, on October 13, 2010.
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Vivid Sunset
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