Earth from the International Space Station

Viewers of this camera look down on Earth from the International Space Station as it circles the planet. The view shifts constantly: broad oceans, swirling cloud fields, coastlines and mountain ranges slide past beneath the station. The curved limb of the atmosphere and the dark edge of space are usually visible, and the terminator line between day and night crosses the scene as the station travels.

The most striking change comes from the orbit itself, which brings a sunrise and sunset roughly every ninety minutes, so day and night alternate quickly. Watching during a pass over land in daylight reveals coastlines and terrain; night passes show city lights and lightning in storm clouds. Seasons alter the polar ice and the greenness of continents, and weather systems move across the view from hour to hour.

The International Space Station is a crewed research laboratory assembled in low Earth orbit by several space agencies working together. It circles the planet at an altitude of a few hundred kilometres, fast enough to complete many orbits each day. Crew members live and work aboard for months, conducting experiments in microgravity and observing Earth and the sky through the station windows.