Flying Over the Earth at Night
Many wonders are visible when flying over the Earth at night.
Such visual spectacles occur every day for astronauts in low Earth orbit, but the
featured video
captured several from the
International Space Station (ISS) in 2011 and set them to rousing music.
Passing below are
white clouds,
orange city lights,
lightning flashes in
thunderstorms, and dark
blue seas.
On the horizon is the
golden haze of
Earth's thin atmosphere,
frequently decorated by dancing auroras as the video progresses.
The green parts of auroras typically remain below the space station, but the station flies
right through
the red and purple auroral peaks.
Solar panels of the ISS are seen around the frame edges.
The ominous wave of approaching brightness at the end of each sequence is just the
dawn of the sunlit half of
Earth,
a dawn that occurs every 90 minutes.