Crew Earth Observations Videos - South Pacific Islands

This video was taken by the crew of Expedition 34 on board the International Space Station. The sequence of shots was taken on January 3, 2013 from 11:43:46 to 15:49:31 GMT, on a pass from northwestern Australia, making two complete orbits to eastern Quebec, near the Gulf of St. Lawrence. This fast-paced video features the ISS completing two and a half orbits around the Earth, crossing the terminator line several times in the process. The video begins as the ISS is in darkness, and as the moon rises on the left side of the video, the ISS begins to pass over into daylight. Clouds mostly obscure the view during this first daylight pass with the exception of the Caucasus and Elburz Mountains just before the terminator. The ISS slips back into night as the moon again rises in the left side of the video. As the Station flies back into daylight, the ISS flies over Central America, the Caribbean Sea, and Cuba and Florida before flying over the northern Atlantic Ocean. Most of Western Europe is under cloud, and the first land that can be seen is the Alps Mountains and Croatia. The ISS then passes over the terminator line again into darkness as the moon rises in the left side of the video. As the ISS passes back over into daylight, clouds obscure most of the Earth until near the end of the video, when it passes over the Baja Peninsula and the southwestern United States.

Compiled from frames ISS034-E-16709 to ISS034-E-18545

Date posted: 2013/01/23

This video was taken by the crew of Expedition 31 on board the International Space Station. The sequence of shots was taken from June 28, 2012 from 00:54:14 to 01:09:58 GMT, on a pass from the Indian Ocean, just off the coast of western Australia, to the North Pacific Ocean, east of the Philippine Sea. This video begins over northwestern Australia as the ISS travels northeast and over the sunglint on the Timor Sea and Arafura Sea. As the ISS continues northeast, Tropical Storm Doksuri and the storm's outflow can be seen (for more information on this tropical storm, see this NASA Earth Observatory article). The pass ends looking over the North Pacific Ocean.

This video was taken by the crew of Expedition 30 on board the International Space Station. The sequence of shots was taken March 31, 2012 from 07:46:23 to 07:58:32 GMT, on a pass from the Southern Ocean, south of Australia, to just north of New Zealand. This video begins looking over the Southern Ocean, as the ISS travels northeast towards eastern Australia and New Zealand. The sun can be seen setting in the upper right corner of the Cupola as the pass ends over dark northern New Zealand.

This video was taken by the crew of Expedition 30 on board the International Space Station. The sequence of shots was taken March 10, 2012 from 07:42:00 to 08:39:50 GMT, on a pass from the Atlantic Ocean, west of Guinea in western Africa, to northern New Zealand. This video was taken as the crew faced the camera back at the Soyuz and down at the Earth, and represents around half of one orbit track. The video begins as the ISS crosses over the terminator line, which is the line separating day and night time. The first bit of land seen is that of northwestern Africa, where we can see the rusty colors of the Sahara Desert, including the dunes in the sand that look like ripples. Continuing northeast, the ISS passes over the southern half of Italy, which is over heavy cloud, and then on to the Balkan Peninsula (also under cloud). There is a brief jump in the video where the crew stopped acquiring imagery for approximately 20 minutes, and then resumed over the Philippine Sea. The video ends as the ISS is traveling southeast to the east of Australia.

This video was taken by the crew of Expedition 30 on board the International Space Station. The sequence of shots was taken January 3, 2012 from 15:01:30 to 15:08:17 GMT, on a pass from the Indian Ocean, just west of Australia, to south of Australia, west of Tasmania. The pass begins looking eastward toward southern Australia at the Aurora Australis (click here to read about the Aurora Australis). The crew captures the aurora just before the sun begins to come up in this short video. A few orbiting satellites pass by throughout the video as well.

This video was taken by the crew of Expedition 30 on board the International Space Station. The sequence of shots was taken January 02, 2012 from 10:56:14 to 11:17:54 GMT, on a pass from northeastern China to the Coral Sea, just east of Australia. The pass begins looking back from the ISS, just northwest of Beijing. As the ISS travels southeast, it passes over Beijing and the Bohai Sea and travels toward Korea (right side of video). On the Korean Peninsula, North Korea's capital city of Pyongyang and South Korea's capital city of Seoul are brightly lit. As the pass continues, the southern half of Japan is seen along with a couple of islands in the South China Sea. The ISS continues traveling southeast over the Philippine Sea toward Australia.

This video was taken by the crew of Expedition 29 on board the International Space Station. The sequence of shots was taken October 29, 2011 from 15:24:54 to 15:52:55 GMT, on a pass from western Kazakhstan near the Caspian Sea southeast to South Australia, just north of the Great Australian Bight. The video begins just northwest of the Tibetan Plateau, where the greenish glow is from airglow. The line separating the plateau and the city lights to the right of track are the Himalaya Mountains, with cities like New Delhi, Lahore, and Islamabad standing out. Continuing down track, one can spot the brightly-lit city of Calcutta just right of track before flying over Burma and Thailand. Thailand's capital city, Bangkok, is the brightest-lit city in the video. The white lights of the city can be seen nearby the green and purple lights on the Gulf of Thailand, which are fishing boats and oil rigs. Once across the Gulf of Thailand, cities like Kuala Lumpur and Singapore stand out right of track before flying over the island of Java (long, thin island downtrack from Singapore). Near the end of the video the ISS flies southeast over Australia and lightning storms, and the Milky Way can be seen rising in the sky.

This video was taken by the crew of Expedition 29 on board the International Space Station. The sequence of shots was taken October 29, 2011 from 16:56:46 to 17:28:21 GMT, on a pass beginning over central Ukraine to just south of Australia, over the Great Australian Bight. This video immediately starts by looking southeast toward the Black Sea, then continues over the Caspian Sea and to the Mideast. The India-Pakistan border stands out as the snaking orange line left of track. The bright lights nearby the borderline are those of Karachi, Pakistan's largest city and main seaport. The pass continues down the western half of India, with lightning storms shooting off in the southwestern half of the peninsula. The lights of Sri Lanka can be seen through the clouds directly downtrack of India before passing into the Indian Ocean. Finally, the pass ends just west of Australia, with the lights of Perth seen on the coastline. The Aurora Australis can be seen in the distance as the video ends.

This video was taken by the crew of Expedition 29 on board the International Space Station. The sequence of shots was taken October 20, 2011 from 17:48:40 to 18:05:17 GMT, on a descending pass from eastern China to western New Guinea, and rounds out to an ascending pass just as the video ends north of Australia. As the pass begins southeastward towards the South China Sea, the first noticably-lit area is that of Hong Kong and Macau. The island of Taiwan can also be easily seen left of track. The ISS passes over the South China Sea towards the Philippines, which have some cloud cover and storms. Finally, the pass ends just north of Australia, where the Yorke Peninsula can be seen as a dark, rusty color protruding into the water.

This video was taken by the crew of Expedition 29 on board the International Space Station. The sequence of shots was taken October 8, 2011 from 20:53:10 to 21:24:58 GMT, on a long pass from the mid-Atlantic between South America and Africa ascending to the Balkan Peninsula, and rounding out on a descending pass southwest towards the Solomon Islands. The camera is west-looking, therefore the setting sun in the west is the first image seen throughout this sequence. The pass continues over the Sahara Desert in northern Africa, before hitting the Mediterranean Sea and the Balkan Peninsula. Finally, the ISS flies over Russia and Kazakhstan and begins the descending pass towards the southern Pacific Ocean. The faint lights from the Aurora Borealis can be seen near the end of the video.

Video of the Aurora Australis taken by the crew of Expedition 28 on board the International Space Station. This sequence of shots was taken September 11, 2011 from 13:45:06 to 14:01:51 GMT, from a descending pass near eastern Australia, rounding about to an ascending pass to the east of New Zealand.

This pass begins over Mongolia, looking out west towards the Pacific Ocean, China, and Japan. As the video progresses, you can see major cities along the coast and the Japanese islands on the Philippine Sea. The island of Guam can be seen further down the pass into the Philippine Sea, and the pass ends just to the east of New Zealand. A lightning storm can be seen as light pulses near the end of the video.