Stunning Time Lapse of the Earth From the ISS

The Bad Astronomer writes "Science educator James Drake took 600 still photos from the International Space Station as it orbited the Earth, and created a fantastic time-lapse animation out of them. It must be seen to be appreciated; storms and cities fly past below in amazing clarity."

Comments

the video was spectacular

[planimal]

seeing bolts of lightning from space was awfully sublime

Re:the video was spectacular

[ajo_arctus]

I was amazed at just how much lightning was in that video. It never occurred to me until now that there would be so many thunderstorms going on all over the world all of the time. This is a rare video where the superlatives in the headline (amazing, fantastic etc.) are well and truly justified.

Re:the video was spectacular

[riverat1]

According to Wikipedia there are 44 +/- 5 lightning bolts per second on the Earth.

Re:the video was spectacular

[TapeCutter]

Also checkout the atmospheric lensing of the stars in the background.

Re:the video was spectacular

[Old Wolf]

There's a video response where the guy has edited it to look smoother and clearer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PdDEpC0uHWI&feature=watch_response

Interesting

[deathcow]

I thought they weren't going to fly over Compton/Los Angeles anymore at nighttime after the Soyuz-jackings last year?

Re:Interesting

[instagib]

I'm not sure how it is possible, but I think I just heard the ISS whoooshing by.

Re:Interesting

[Dr Herbert West]

Not everyone is from the U.S-- so jokes about dangerous neighborhoods in the US fall flat.

In short, Compton ( a neighborhood in Los Angeles) is often associated with high levels of street crime-- in particular car-jacking/stealing. Hence, the "soyuz-jacking" reference.

You know what would be cool?

[The Creator]

If we got everyone to shut of their lights and not answer radio calls from ISS for a day. Just to mess with their heads!

Fitting

[DigitalGodBoy]

Carl Sagan's "Pale Blue Dot":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p86BPM1GV8M

Always a good perspective check

Re:Direction

[vell0cet]

Remember, the earth is revolving while the ISS is orbiting, so it will be very confusing to try to figure it out by watching that video. It's not like the earth is standing still while the ISS orbits.

It deserves the hyperbole

[jthill]

For the first time, I wondered why we can't mod stories up.

I don't have time to watch all that...

[mutube]

Executive summary

Some of us have jobs to do you know.

Re:I don't have time to watch all that...

[Zibodiz]

That, my friend, was the funniest thing I've seen all day.

Re:Light pollution

[Anonymous Coward]

There are many places even in the USA where the night is pitch black and you can see the Milky Way with zero light pollution. It's much easier to go the NE New Mexico than into orbit.

Green city?

[luisdom]

What's the green light seen on sec. 30?

Re:Green city?

[reverseengineer]

Looks Veracruz has predominantly mercury vapor lighting, as opposed to the yellow-orange sodium vapor lighting seen in most of the other cities. Tokyo at night from space glows greenish blue for this reason, anyway. There's an discussion of this (and of other effects seen in pictures of cities at night taken from orbit) here: Cities At Night

Re:Light pollution

[Anonymous Coward]

You've never been camping, have you?

Re:Direction

[RoFLKOPTr]

This is awesome! I'm trying to figure out what part of the earth this is imaging. My best guess is going from the north to south pole along the western side of the Americas, starting somewhere near Vancouver/Seattle passing Mexico, down along Chile, and ending as it gets to Antarctica. Can anyone confirm this?

The description on YouTube says:

A time-lapse taken from the front of the International Space Station as it orbits our planet at night. This movie begins over the Pacific Ocean and continues over North and South America before entering daylight near Antarctica. Visible cities, countries and landmarks include (in order) Vancouver Island, Victoria, Vancouver, Seattle, Portland, San Fransisco, Los Angeles. Phoenix. Multiple cities in Texas, New Mexico and Mexico. Mexico City, the Gulf of Mexico, the Yucatan Peninsula, Lightning in the Pacific Ocean, Guatemala, Panama, Columbia, Ecuador, Peru, Chile, and the Amazon. Also visible is the earths ionosphere (thin yellow line) and the stars of our galaxy.

Obligatory . . .

[wrencherd]

I can see my house!

Re:Direction

[ScottForbes]

This page shows the orbit of the ISS. I believe what we're seeing is:

0:00 - Seattle / Vancouver as a dot on the horizon at left.
0:05 - Left to right: Seattle, Portland, San Francisco.
0:12 - ISS passes over land slightly north of San Francisco, moving toward Las Vegas; Los Angeles and San Diego on the right.
0:16 - ISS passes almost directly over Las Vegas (bottom center).
0:18 - ISS passes almost directly over Phoenix. Gulf of California on the right; Dallas and Houston on the horizon at far left.
0:28 - Mexico City. Gulf of Mexico on the left, Pacific Ocean on the right.
0:34 - Central American coast flyby, complete with tropical storms.
0:43 - South American coast flyby: Colombia, then Ecuador, then Peru.
0:51 - Lima, Peru.
0:55 - Border between Peru and Chile. The station's orbit begins to curve inland (eastward).
0:58 - Valparaiso and Santiago on the horizon at right (behind the solar panels after 0:59).
0:59 - Buenos Aires, Argentina is just appearing on the horizon (top center) as the video ends.

So I don't think Antarctica is ever visible - the station's orbit starts to turn eastward before that happens.

These were in the dark

[SpasticWeasel]

This sequence was taken at night using moonshine for illumination. Which makes it pretty damn cool.