Five stunning images of earth from space this month

As the earth spins, a number of satellites orbit around it, taking pictures from space to monitor how it is changing over time.

There have been some stunning images captured so far this month, so I thought I’d pull together the best ones and share them with you.

UK from space

As the International Space Station orbits our planet, there are high-definition cameras constantly streaming a live view looking down from space, around 250 miles up.

The image below, captured from the live stream early in the evening on 21 April, shows the UK, Ireland and western tip of France looking westwards.

The pale orange glow on the sea is the sun shining down as it starts to lower in the sky, with sunset soon following.

Australian storm

On 20-22 April, a strong, slow-moving storm brought strong winds and heavy rain that battered New South Wales, including Sydney.

The image below shows the huge expanse of cloud that gave the stormy weather, killing three people and leaving around 200,000 homes without power.

Antarctic sea ice

Captured on 5 April, the image below shows the bright, snow-covered surface of Antarctica.

There’s a large iceberg to the right of the picture, but the main thing to notice is the vast area of sea ice stretching away from the coastline.

Arabian dust

Taken on 2 April, the image below shows a massive wall of dust pushing south eastwards across the Arabian Peninsula, driven by strong winds.

If you look closely, you can see striations in the dust that hint at its direction of movement.

Smoke from Russia to North America

A strong reminder of how the global atmosphere has connections far and wide, this image, taken on 18 April, shows a haze of smoke stretching across the Pacific Ocean between Asia and North America.

It is thought that the smoke is from wildfires across southern Russia and has been caught up in the jet stream winds, before being pushed across the ocean to reach the west coast of the US.

You can view more amazing image on Nasa’s Earth Observatory website here.

Images: Nasa