Most of us prefer our winter roads free of ice, but cloud streets depend on it. The cloud formations shown in this satellite image developed over the Bering Sea partly because of the snow and ice blanketing the land and partly due to the sea ice clinging to the coast. The resulting cloud formations resemble streets.
Late November 2011 offered mostly cloud-free skies and a compelling satellite view of the entire length of Baja California and the Pacific coast of Mexico. In the midst of the clarity, strong northeasterly winds stirred up dust storms on the mainland and the peninsula, blowing offshore to fertilize the ocean by promoting phytoplankton blooms.
Following a volcano eruption that occurred in the Red Sea in December 2011, satellite images reveal what appears to be a new island where there previously was an unbroken water surface. According to news reports, fishermen witnessed lava fountains reaching up to 30 meters (90 feet) tall on Dec. 19.
The city lights of Spain and Portugal define the Iberian Peninsula in this night-time photograph from the International Space Station. Several large metropolitan areas are visible, marked by their relatively large and brightly lit areas.
As citizens of northern countries ponder sculpted snow and ice, the summer skies over the southern oceans offered their own vision in white in November 2011. The brush strokes of bright holiday swirls were made by winds and atmospheric eddies moving over the far southern reaches of the Indian Ocean.
This striking image from the International Space Station captures the beauty and power of nature in motion. A panoramic, oblique view of eastern Argentina and its coastline shows a large plume of dust swirling outward from the interior to the Atlantic Ocean.
When observed from space, the layers of Earth's atmosphere remind us of the fragility of the cocoon that shelters life on our planet. Astronauts aboard the International Space Station captured a bit of both in this digital photograph acquired July 31, 2011, with the moon thrown in as an extra gift.
On Nov. 6, 2011, after more than a year of relative peace, the Nyamuragira volcano in the Democratic Republic of Congo surged to life. Lava erupted spectacularly from a fissure low on one of the volcano’s flanks and spilled northward, away from populated areas. This NASA EO-1 image shows billowing, blue-tinged steam clouds rising above the superheated fissure and lava-bathed landscape.
A nation long synonymous with big oil, United Arab Emirates (UAE) has become the land of the tallest skyscrapers, largest Starbucks and world's only artificial archipelago. UAE and surrounding nations are expected to spend an additional staggering $600 billion on construction projects by 2015. Nowhere is such growth more evident than the city of Dubai. This short video comprises WorldView-2 and QuickBird time-series satellite imagery to chronicle Dubai's remarkable transformation.
In late October 2011, the North Sea sported meandering bands comprising multiple shades of green off the coasts of Denmark and Germany. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) sensor on NASA's Aqua satellite captured this natural-color image of the region on Oct. 23, 2011.
