ISS042-E-244403 (2/2/2015) --- The arid landscapes of the Sahara and the darker vegetation of the wetter, semi-arid woodland known as the Sahel...
The dark green marshes of Lake Chad stand out in the foreground. Even though it is more than 200 kilometers (120 miles) long, modern Lake Chad is just a small remnant of a vast lake that has repeatedly occupied the most of this landscape in the recent geological past. This lake basin stretches almost 1000 kilometers (600 miles) from the foreground of the image to the foot of the Tibesti Mountains.... www.nasa.gov/feature/top-15-earth-images-of-2015
ISS042-E-281151 (2/8/2015) --- Hawaii’s Kilauea volcano (image left) with the long swirls of volcanic gases (top half of the image) wafting west from the volcano...
Astronauts are trained to take oblique images of hard-to-see atmospheric haze by shooting obliquely to enhance visibility. The gas haze—termed vog, a combination of fog, smog and volcanic—is well known in Hawaii, and is defined as “a form of air pollution that results when sulfur dioxide and other gases … emitted by an erupting volcano react with oxygen and moisture in the presence of sunlight...." www.nasa.gov/feature/top-15-earth-images-of-2015
ISS042-E-294940 (2/27/2015) --- A dramatic view of the many peaks of Colombia’s Santa Marta massif...
The highest of these (approximately 5700 m, 18,700 feet), named for Christopher Columbus, is so high that it supports a small but permanent snow cap (image far left), even though it lies only ten degrees north of the Equator. The summits are so high that trees cannot grow—landscapes appear gray because only grass and small shrubs can survive the cold.... www.nasa.gov/feature/top-15-earth-images-of-2015
ISS043-E-86375 (4/3/2015) --- Southern Scandinavia just before midnight under a full moon...
Prominent features include a green aurora to the north (upper middle of the image), the blackness of the Baltic Sea (lower right), clouds (top right) and snow in Norway illuminated under a full moon. City lights clearly show the recognizable coastline of the Skagerrak and Kattegat seaway leading into the Baltic Sea that separates Denmark from its neighbors to the north.... www.nasa.gov/feature/top-15-earth-images-of-2015
ISS043-E-91884 (4/6/2015) --- The eye-catching delta and green swamps of the Paraná River (image left) on the Atlantic coast of Argentina...
The Paraná River, South America’s second largest after the Amazon River, pours brown muddy water into a wide estuary known as the River Plate (image center and right). The gray mass of Argentina’s capital city, Buenos Aires (metro population 12.74 million in 2010), is less prominent seen from space (upper left), although astronauts quickly attune their eyes to the subtle signature of such cityscapes.... www.nasa.gov/feature/top-15-earth-images-of-2015