20 September 2011
Posted by Ryan
If you haven’t seen this yet, you need to watch this spectacular time-lapse video of the earth at night as seen by the ISS:
This video, from Infinity Imagined, was put together by using raw data from the NASA “Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth“. Note to NASA: Videos like this are why you should always make data public and ensure that people know it’s available!
Ryan Anderson is the Shoemaker Postdoctoral Fellow at the U.S. Geological Survey Astrogeology Science Center. Ryan has a background in Physics and Astronomy and received his PhD in Planetary Science from Cornell University. His research helped lead to the selection of the Gale crater landing site for the Mars Science Laboratory rover "Curiosity", and he is on the science team for the ChemCam instrument on Curiosity. He is a payload downlink lead for ChemCam and for the Pancam color cameras on the Opportunity rover. 
Kevin said on 21 September 2011
Wow. The lightning was particularly cool.
steve said on 22 September 2011
Beautiful – So humbling..! Can we get a brief on start point and end point – I couldn’t work it out…………..
Ryan said on 22 September 2011
Over on YouTube, this is the info that comes with the video:
“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 Francisco, Los Angeles. Phoenix. Multiple cities in Texas, New Mexico and Mexico. Mexico City, the Gulf of Mexico, the Yucatan Peninsula, El Salvador, Lightning in the Pacific Ocean, Guatemala, Panama, Columbia, Ecuador, Peru, Chile, Lake Titicaca, and the Amazon. Also visible is the earths ionosphere (thin yellow line), a satellite (55sec) and the stars of our galaxy.”
Steve said on 22 September 2011
Thanks Ryan