The Earth at Night

"Earth at Night"  Credit: C. Mayhew & R. Simmon (NASA/GSFC), NOAA/NGDC, DMSP Digital Archive

This famous image of the lights of the earth at night was produced in the year 2000. You can click on the image to enlarge it.

A Rotating Color Globe with Current Infrared Satellite Imagery

The Space Science and Engineering Center at the University of Wisconsin Madison produces a color globe that shows the current satellite infrared imagery of clouds around the Earth.  You can control the rotation of the globe by the controls located under the globe.  You can see the globe site by clicking here, but please note that on my computer the site works on Firefox and Explorer but does not work on Google Chrome and so you may have the same problem with your computer.

Real-Time/"Live" Views of Earth from the International Space Station

"STS-114 Picture of ISS"   The Backdrop is the Caspian Sea.  Taken from Space Shuttle Discovery in 2005.  
Credit: NASA.  (click on photo to enlarge it)

You can get a live view of Earth from the International Space Station approximately 30% to 40% of the time, at best.  I know of two ways to get to this view from the Space Station.  One way is to go to directly to the link at UStream - Live ISS Stream from NASA.  The other way is to get to the link via NASA TV where once you're on NASA TV you go to "Space Station Views" and then click on "Flash (UStream)".  There are five sites that I know of for tracking the Space Station and they are: NASA's site, Real Time Satellite Tracking, Heavens Above [occasionally shows other satellites instead of the Space Station], ISS Tracker and SPACE.cweb.NL.

"Space Shuttle and Space Station Photographed Together"  Photo taken from Russian Soyuz TMA-20 - May 2011.
Credit: NASA.  (click on photo to enlarge it )

The International Space Station photographed by an STS-133 crew member on Space Shuttle Discovery after undocking.
March 7, 2011.  Credit: NASA.  (click on phot to enlarge it)

The International Space Station photographed by an STS-134 crew member on Space Shuttle Endeavor after undocking from the Space Station on May 29, 2011.  Credit: NASA.  (click on photo to enlarge it)

Two Amazing Views of Current Worldwide Cloud Cover

Two of the best sites for viewing the current cloud cover worldwide are Global Montage from the University of Wisconsin at Madison and World Satellite Infrared Imagery from the United Kingdom's government Met Office.  With the second link, you can even get a moving view of the weather and you can click on the individual continents for a closer view of each continent.  These links will be permanently listed on the right hand column of this blog, and because they don't completely show the cloud cover over the polar regions I've added some satellite sites showing current Antarctic and Arctic cloud cover.  These sites are an Antarctic site from the University of Wisconsin (any dark areas represent unavailable satellite imagery) and the Antarctic and Arctic sites from the Weather Channel.  These polar sites are also listed in the right hand column of this blog

Welcome to EarthObserver.Net

"The Water Planet"  Credit: NASA  (click on image to enlarge it)

Welcome to EarthObserver's new homepage.  This blog will cover the coolest views of Earth from space and it will also cover various items of interest involving the Earth's geography.  I may also discuss near earth objects and other interesting space topics once in a while.  For now, EarthObserver's main purpose is to cover current satellite views of Earth and they can be viewed by clicking here or by clicking on the first item on the above menu.