Caption by Space Station Academy student: The picture shows mountains near Manta, Ecuador. Some part of the mountains have ice, while the other part does not. It is really noticeable. I really like how you can see the separation between the ice and the mountain. This indirectly tells me that the left part of the mountains is at a lower altitude than the right part of the mountains.

Caption by Space Station Academy student: This photo shows a jet above the Bristol Channel headed toward Swansea Bay and Swansea, United Kingdom. The land to the east lies the beaches of Port Talbot, Wales. The land to the east looks like a quilted patchwork of colors, making me think of how it appears when flying over the midwestern United States in an airplane. There is a lot of cloud cover and it looks as though the plane in this photo is about to encounter some turbulence.

Caption by Space Station Academy student: near Tasman Sea in between Tasmania and New Zealand. This image is fascinating because we can see city lights in New Zealand, and we can also see a gold haze over the horizon---perhaps the Southern Lights?

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Caption by Space Station Academy student: This is a picture of the Aurora Australis over the Indian Ocean. The significance of this photo is trying to see how a wonder such as the Aurora Australis came into being. There are many legends surrounding it and scientists are trying to gain another perspective from space.

Caption by Space Station Academy student: This is a picture of the Aurora Australis over the Indian Ocean. The significance of this photo is trying to see how a wonder such as the Aurora Australis came into being. There are many legends surrounding it and scientists are trying to gain another perspective from space.

Caption by Space Station Academy student: This is a green aurora light over Antartica. It is currently night in this area, so the light is clearly visible. I chose this image because it first caught my eye while I was looking through the photos.

Caption by Space Station Academy student: Aurora in South Pacific in between southwestern Australia and Antarctica. There are various colors (green, black, and dark blue) in stripes across the night sky. The green pops out at you and is very fog like.

Caption by Space Station Academy student: This photo shows an aurora over Antarctica and is taken along the southwestern corner of Australia facing toward Antarctica, as evidenced by the sheets of ice below. Stars are also in the picture. The photo is a beautiful night view of a clear sky with an aurora dancing across it.

Caption by Space Station Academy student: Reflections of sunlight from water and waterways outline the area known as the Moremi Game Reserve. Water levels and waterflow are critical resources for wildlife and people of Central Africa. From space, observations can monitor and track the abundance or lack of water, waterways and wetlands.

Caption by Space Station Academy students: 1) This is a picture of the Aurora Australis or Southern Lights. You can see the lights of all different colors dancing up and down and you can also see part of the space station. Beyond that you can see the thin atmosphere of Earth. The white color underneath the lights is snow and you can see a little bit of blue and that's the melted snow. You can see the Southern Lights dancing up and down. I like how it seems like the lights are having a contest to see how high they can go. I also think it's cool that you have a pretty good view of the Earth's atmosphere. It's very thin and the lights seem to go through the atmosphere. 2) It looks as if the sun is rising and the northern lights are still going and finishing up for the night. There is a beautiful reflection off of the atmosphere and a the beautiful green northern lights. 3) This image is the Aurora Australis or southern lights, the southern hemisphere’s version of Aurora Borealis. Not only do the green lights swirl majestically and become red as they retreat from Earth, but the stars can be seen as well as the horizon of light, creating a spectacular visual array of colors set off by the night sky on one side, the earth on the other. 4) This photograph was taken at such an angle as to capture both the earth below and the stars above. There is a powerful otherworldliness in seeing the night’s sky as one would see it from on earth, the earth itself as seen from space, and the stunning light show in between 5) The aurora is a beautiful and benign aspect of more dangerous space weather. Space weather must be monitored for the safety and health of astronauts, to protect satellites and Earth's power grids. The space perspective helps people better understand Earth's relationship with the sun.

Caption by Space Station Academy student: The Keys and beach features extending West into the Gulf of Mexico from the metropolis of St. Petersburg, FL., USA. Note the apparent fragility of the various and interconnected keys and sandbar regions. Hurricanes and sea-level rise can damage and destroy regions such as this. From images like this, people can monitor and realize the susceptibility of living adjacent to, and in, ocean areas and take action to mitigate the dangers.

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Caption by Space Station Academy students: 1) This is a picture of the snow-capped mountains in Western Argentina. This can show a progression of more or less snow. It could possibly show how fault movement brings the mountain higher. 2) This image shows the Andes Mountains in northern Chile, Bolivia, and southern Peru. The clouds seem to hug the coastline then slice inland. Toward the upper right, the brown mountains become the green of the Amazon Basin. The Andes have exceptional detail, folding and jutting along the western coast of South America. Midframe about two thirds of the way across, the beige patch is Salar de Uyuni, the worlds' largest salt flat.

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Caption by Space Station Academy student: This is a picture from above of a airplane flying between Ireland and the U.K. with vibrant blue water below it and a contrail behind it. I just learned that the trail that an airplane leaves is called a contrail but I still can't figure out what that dark line is....

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Caption by Space Station Academy student: Picture showing city lights at night. (and some ISS at the top). It's a beautiful picture. It almost looks like wildfires. I wonder if it helps research on light pollution.

Captions by 2cSpace Station Academy student: 1) This is a picture of Mexico with different kinds of vibrant lights: man made lights, (city lights), galaxy lights ( star lights) and storm lights (lightning). In this picture I love how there are three different kinds of lights in the same picture! With this photo people study how they look from space and compare their differences. 2) This is a picture of a mix of a lot of different things. There is a thunderstorm in one area and a city in another. The gold colors are city lights. The bright flashes in the clouds that look like camera flashes are lightening. You have a good view of the horizon line with the thin layer of the atmosphere showing up with the sun. You can also see part of the ISS. I like this picture because it was a night picture and I love night pictures. I like that you can see a lightening storm over the water and cities lit up on the land. The horizon is beautiful and there are so may bright spots in this picture!!

Caption by Space Station Academy student: This photo is taken at night time off the coast of Acapulco, Mexico. There are lights representing the different cities in the area and areas of darkness where there aren't many residents. Off to the right side of the photo (south), there are bright white lights representing a thunder and lightning storm. This view from space of how a populated area looks is fascinating to me. I also love how a small portion if the ISS is included in the picture.

Caption by Space Station Academy student: This photo is of a dessert area in Bolivia which I believe to be part of Volcan Isluga National Park. This is a region that appears uninhabited and just to the west is a fertile region of Bolivia. The topography changes are evident in the photo and in the lower right corner, there appears to be some volcanic action. The starkness of this photo struck me after viewing so many with water and fertile land. It's hard to tell if there are multiple smaller volcanoes in the region or if this is just a cumulus cloud covered area.

Caption by Space Station Academy student: This image shows the coast of the Gulf of Mexico. The water is greener closer to the coast, where it is a bit warmer and shallower. There are beaches and fertile land just to the west of these. The contrast between the colors on land and over the water are dramatic. Most of the land area looks to be desert or sand and the cast area of water is primarily a deep blue color. The land in this picture does not look overly built up from this angle.

Caption by Space Station Academy students: This image shows the Bahamas island chain off the Florida coast. There is a difference in the color of the water as the water nearer the islands is more greenish in color and the ocean water farther away is a darker blue. There is a solid large land mass to the right of the picture which might be Florida. It is hard to tell with the cloud cover. some of the smaller consistent white spots on the land mass to the right might represent a city such as Miami.

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Caption by Space Station Academy student: This image represents an area of northern France on the English channel. the green shows that this area has a lot of well developed trees and vegetation. You can tell the difference between the forested portions , the more grass or pasture like section, and the beach areas. There are several inlets and water channels. There is no signs of any substantial human settlement here. This is an area which may already be protected. If not then steps should be taken to preserve this natural beauty for current and future generations to enjoy.

Caption by Space Station Academy student: It appears to be a layer of clouds over the ocean. The pattern of the clouds seem to be bumpy and similar to desert sands. I chose this image because it looked unique to me. I have seen different cloud formations, but I've never seen clouds form like this. The clouds looked like a sheet of metal at first glance.

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Caption by Space Station Academy student: This is a beautiful image of Crooked Island, one of numerous islands in the Bahamas. Imagery of the Bahamian islands and atolls always fascinates me. It is a bit difficult to tell which land is entirely above the water and which land is slightly below it. The clarity of the waters in the Caribbean must enhance this effect. I once had to do a mapping/charting project on the Bahamas, and I noticed this same effect while looking at many of the islands. Studying images such as these, over a period of time, we may see significant differences as sea levels rise. This also applies to other small island nations throughout the world. I wonder how the rising sea levels will affect the drawing of legal maritime boundaries for such countries.

Caption by Space Station Academy student: This picture has the clouds, land, and waters of Dominica. The Carribean Sea is bordering the island. This picture is very pretty. The nice blue waters and the beautiful island looks like a perfect vacation destination.

Caption by Space Station Academy student: This image shows the island of Basse-Terre in the Caribbean Sea. The island contains green spaces signifying trees or vegetation with what appear to be rocky and barren surfaces. In the southern portion of the island appears to be smoke is a concentrated cloud over what appears to be an elevated location.

Caption by Space Station Academy student: This is a direct top view of an island in the Caribbean. There is a mountain in the middle of the mountain, possibly a volcano. There are cities/towns in some parts of the island. I was curious about this island and where it was. I thought at first it would be one of the islands of Hawaii, because most of those islands appear similar, with a volcano in the middle and towns near the edge. I learned that this island is called Nevis, and is a nation with St. Kitts.

Caption by Space Station Academy student: This is a picture of farmland in Southwest Canada between Hanley and and Davidson. The different patches of green are different pastures or farmlands. I'm still trying to figure out what the "blog" of water is, but I think it's a lake near Rt 11. I like seeing how all the different colors of farmland go together. I like what looks like a "blob" of water, it looks like sea foam. I picked this picture because I really liked how all the different colors of land looked like different horse pastures.

Caption by Space Station Academy student: Snow-capped mountain peaks and glacial ice flow. Climate change can be monitored by repeatedly imaging changes in glaciers and mountain snow cover.

Caption by Space Station Academy student: This image appears to be a frozen river or glacier going down a valley. The valley is surrounded by mountains covered in snow.

Caption by Space Station Academy student: north of Little Fort, British Columbia in western Canada

Caption by Space Station Academy student: Showed in the picture, is a pivot cultivation located in Qassim, Saudi Aarabia. The pivot cultivation, is a method of irrigation (used mostly because it's really cheap), where a motor moves in circles in order to water the crops, that's why it looks like this from above. Though Qassim grows grapes, dates, lemons and others, this particular image shows the cereal crops. Qassim is one of the most important regions in Saudi Arabia, to cultivate and export cereals; is actually so important, that every season, thousands of people of different countries and regions, travel to Qassim to fulfill their markets with grapes, oranges, pomegranates and vegetables. The city of Buraydah, located inside Qassim, is a dates producer worldwide. Something awesome about this dates cultivations, is that they celebrate each September a dates season ceremony, where people from all over the GCC countries, gather together to celebrate and buy their yearly requirement of dates. They also buy camels, in one of the biggest camel markets in the world.

Caption by Space Station Academy student: This looks like part of a river that has dams in the Jordan desert.The first thing I thought of when I looked at this picture was of a green leaf because of the stream attached to the end of the dams and the dams look like the veins in a leaf. The dams must help the people in the desert grow food and have a good water supply.

Caption by Space Station Academy student: This shows a big river with it's other streams connected to the other main river flow. This goes to show how our water comes into a certain place with the help over the main river flow. The river also seems to resemble a tree.

Caption by Space Station Academy student: This image shows the condition of Mount hood in northern Oregon. This is a snow capped peak with a solid covering of snow and ice. It would appear to be difficult to climb so proper precautions should be made for that type of activity. There is some barren land in the right portion of the image before you reach the green forested area again. This could be one in a series of images taken over time to monitor the image of climate change by seeing if the snow or ice has receded. There may be signs of this on the right portion of the mountain image. This image also shows that this area is protected or should be as their is no visible signs of a permanent human presence.

Caption by Space Station Academy student: In this photo you can see an island with a beautiful coast. This picture was taken in the Caribbean, near the island of Puerto Rico. You can see that there are barely any clouds in the sky. The island has a jalapeño-like shape. This is an exciting and beautiful picture for me. It's so simple, yet so full of meaning. I love the clear skies and the lack of clouds. You can really see the beautiful color of the beach which is amazing. This picture is special because maybe one day this piece of land was part of Puerto Rico.

Caption by Space Station Academy student: Picture showing the Nile River Delta and Faiyum Oasis. There is vegetation because of the river. The hearty shaped green place is the Faiyum Oasis.

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Caption by Space Station Academy student: According to the National Park Service, Upheaval Dome is an anomaly in the relative geologic order of the Canyonlands. The three mile area is the sight of a disruption in the earth pushing up into a dome or anticlime. Scientists have two competing theories about how this dome came to be. As seen from space, this natural anomaly is both distinct and intriguing. Geologists and nature buffs alike can marvel at its unique beauty and hypothesize about its creation.

Caption by Space Station Academy student: This image shows the largest arm of the Acklins/ Crooked Islands, where is featured the Mason's Bay and Snug Corner. Is also possible to observe the land, which is not so fertile and just hold big ponds (beige spots) with a great amount of salt. Thanks to the Easter look at the the islands, the view is able to show the Blue Holes (one of the biggest in the world, the Dean's Blue Hole), which are in dark blue in contrast with the beach water and also the reefs near the beach. Is important to let notice, the great sand banks that lie near the coast, which indicate how deep is the sea. Taking pictures of the Dean's Blue Hole and it's companions, allow scientists to keep track of the levels of erosion and melting of the ice caused by the global warming. The growth of the Blue Holes, depend on the sea level and climate conditions, so several pictures of blue holes can show the changes through the years. There's also the quality of the reefs, which most are in danger.

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Caption by Space Station Academy student: This image shows the junction of the Madre de Dios and Beni rivers near Riberalta, Bolivia in South America. The Madre de Dios River joins with the Beni River in northern Bolivia and continues through Brazil as a tributary of the Amazon River. Rich greens along the river show the rainforests with one city (Riberalta) where the rivers meet. The curving river supports lush rainforests and diverse wildlife. The sharp contrast of the river's brown, whimsical trail through the land's rich green makes this image strikingly beautiful.

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Tropical Cyclone - July 7, 2014

Caption by Space Station Academy student: Super Typhoon Neoguri; at the time equivalent to a Category 4 hurricane.