World Tour Two
A couple of months ago I described the things you can see on a particular orbit of the Earth, and this week I
decided I’d write about another of my favorite orbit tracks. Each orbit is different, of course, not only
because of the different ground tracks but also because of the varying position of the sun (which side of the
Earth is dark and what season it is). One of the most interesting things for me on this flight has been
watching the seasons change down on the Earth. We launched in late April when it was springtime in the
Northern Hemisphere. At the time, there was still snow on the ground up north. We gradually saw the
northern summer days lengthen, until the very northern regions had continuous daylight while the very
southernmost regions had continuous darkness in late June. Since then, the Earth has moved in its orbit so
that the sun is nearly directly over the equator now, and the line between the dark and lit sides of the Earth
runs straight north-south. I’m starting to see more icebergs floating in the south Atlantic and Indian Oceans
now. Lately large areas of the Earth seem to be covered by hazy clouds, and the atmosphere seems much
less clear than it did a few months ago. We only have a month left in this mission, and we will get to see
the southern days lengthen while the northern days shrink.
The particular orbit track that I’m going to tell you about is definitely a crowd pleaser, and starts over the
equator about a thousand miles west of the Galapagos Islands. Heading northeast, we make landfall on the
southwestern coast of Mexico, near Acapulco. We then pass over Mexico City – which is absolutely
enormous - certainly amongst the biggest cities on Earth. It looks like a big gray area amongst the brown
color of the mountains, and is often smoggy enough to blur photos. If the sun is above, you can see
occasional flickers of sunlight reflecting off buildings. It only takes about one minute to cross over the
country of Mexico and then we are out over the waters of the Gulf of Mexico. Through a forward-facing
window, you can see the Florida peninsula ahead and to the right as we head northeast running parallel to
the Texas coastline. On the left are Houston and Mission Control, not to mention my house. At night in
this area you can see the lights from the offshore oil rigs dotting the Gulf. We then cross the coastline near
the mouth of the Mississippi River, which looks like a big flower sprouting out into the Gulf.
The Mississippi River Delta on the Gulf of Mexico – The dark areas are sediment carried
downstream and deposited in the Gulf.
We then pass up the Appalachian Mountains heading towards the northeastern U.S. There are many small
cities, and some large cities (like Atlanta) along the way. Through binoculars you can see that almost every
one of the towns has a small general aviation airport, which is usually the easiest thing to spot. I like
looking down and finding airports where I’ve landed an airplane before.
Approaching the Northeast we run up a huge line of cities - Washington DC, Baltimore, Philadelphia,
Newark, New York, and Boston. At night the city lights are almost continuous between them, so that most
of the northeast coast looks like one giant city. You can’t see many stars at night if you live around there.
We didn’t get to see the big blackout a couple of months ago because at the time our orbit was over the
Southern Hemisphere at night. A couple of months ago though I did manage to see a different blackout –
over India at night; I was looking out the window when all the lights in a small-sized city suddenly went
out! The surrounding cities remained lit, so my guess was they had some sort of problem at their power
plant. Anyhow, off to the left of New York City is upstate New York, with the town I grew up in
(Webster) and my old university (Cornell). During the summer the weather around here is quite cloudy and
hazy, but as fall weather approaches I hope to get more good photos of this area, especially as the leaves
change color.
New York City at dawn – this picture was taken on the morning of the finals of the US Open tennis
tournament – which unfortunately is just off the left edge of this picture. I do have it in another
picture though!
Next it is off for a quick trip across the Atlantic (which takes about 8 minutes). We make landfall over
Brittany in France, and pass nearly overhead the city of Paris. Looking down at most of Western Europe
you can see how little remains of the forests that used to cover this region. Then we fly right down the
length of Italy, which really does look like a big boot kicking the football of Sicily! On the left is Greece,
with the city of Athens. This area is almost always sunny and clear – with the bright blue waters of the
Mediterranean dotted with lots of small islands. A couple of weeks ago Yuri saw an interesting sight here
– several groups of ships all moving at high speed on parallel tracks. It looked like dotted white lines on
the water. We still don’t know what that was.
We cross the Mediterranean heading southeast. Up ahead on the mouth of the Nile River is the ancient city
of Alexandria. Speaking of which, one of my spare time projects I’ve been working on is to see if I can
photograph from space the locations of all of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, one of which was
the Library at Alexandria. The Nile River stands out sharply because it has lot of vegetation growing on its
banks, making it a dark green that contrasts with the yellowish white sands of Egypt. The river widens into
a huge triangle-shaped patch just as it empties into the Mediterranean (which is why they call it a delta).
This is probably the easiest place on the planet to photograph because I don’t think that even once I have
ever seen a cloud here, and because the landmasses are so distinctive. Just to the southwest of the delta is
the city of Cairo, and another of the Seven Wonders, the Great Pyramids. They are easy to find because
they are just south of a whitish patch in the desert that sits alongside the dark green river delta. I still find it
amazing that I am observing man-made structures built over 3,000 years ago from the vantage point of an
orbiting spaceship!
The Great Pyramids – zoom in and look just slightly above and to the right of the center of the
photograph.
We then fly down the length of the Red Sea, with Saudi Arabia off to our left, and the Horn of Africa up
ahead. Then we head southeast out across the Indian Ocean. There is not much to see around here, mostly
small puffy white clouds dotting the ocean, and the occasional small island ringed by a coral reef. We pass
well south of Australia, then turn northeast and pass over New Zealand. The northern parts of New
Zealand are volcanic, and there are numerous craters and dark, almost black, lava flows. We then finish
this orbit by crossing the Pacific Ocean. Again along the way we pass many small tropical islands. Many
of these islands are uninhabited and are only a few miles across. The shallow water in the reefs
surrounding these islands is a bright green color, and through binoculars you can even see the white color
of the surf crashing along the reefs ringing the islands. And that brings us to the end of another orbit.
By the time this mission is over we will have completed over 2,600 trips around the world!
The tropical island of Moorea in the South Pacific.