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Mona, I've bee on the Nile at night. What a view this is though.

Washington, DC seen from space. The image was captured by ESA's Copernicus Sentinel-2A satellite on 25 August 2015.

A short ESA video points out some of the features of interest in the picture.

NASA's Landsat 8 satellite, in this natural color image of the Tanzerouft Basin in Algeria, shows concentric rings of exposed sandstone strata that create stunning patterns.

The Tanezrouft Basin's colloquial name is the Land of Terror because, for many, to traverse this land is to stare death in the face. Annual rainful is measured at less than 5 mm (0.2 inches). It's a place of very high temperatures and scarce water and vegetation. There aren't even any permanent residents there, only occasional Tuareg nomads.

Now here's something you don't see every day: snow in the Sahara! But ESA's Copernicus Sentinel-2 satellite did see it on January 8 this year. It's only the third time in nearly 40 years that this part of the desert has seen snow.

It's another satellite image that looks like a water color - and in my favorite colors too! It's a natural-color image of a plankton bloom in the Barents Sea. Captured in September 2016 by ESA's Copernicus Sentinel-2A satellite.

On February 19th, 2018, the Sinabung Volcano in Indonesia erupted violently, spewing ash at least 5 to 7 kilometers (16,000 to 23,000 feet) into the air over Indonesia. Ash falls, which are a severe health hazard, were recorded as far as 260 km (160 mi) away from the volcano. Here is the Sinabung eruption seen from space.

Credit: NASA Earth Observatory

Released today by the European Space Agency (ESA) is this image of Southeast Namibia and the western edge of the Kalahari Desert.

The Kalahari is not a true desert as it receives too much rain, but it is a semi-arid zone and an area of ancient fossilised sand dunes. Some of these dunes, also known as sand sheets, can be seen running across the top-right corner of the image and appear surprisingly parallel and uniform.To the east, the landscape also looks like an alien orange world and is dominated by ridges, escarpments and dry lake beds known as salt pans. Roads cutting sharply across the landscape are a reminder that this region is not entirely unpopulated.

Copernicus Sentinel data (2017), processed by ESA

Turning snow orange.

Released 26/03/2018
Contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2018), processed by ESA, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO

Earth from about 393,000 miles (633,000 km) away, as seen by the Rosetta spacecraft during its third and final swing-by of our home planet in 2009.

The southeast geography of the state of Massachusetts including Cape Cod Bay, Martha's Vineyard, Nantucket and the arm-shaped peninsula is clearly seen from the International Space Station as it orbited over the Atlantic coast of the United States.