APOD: The ISS from Above (2010 Mar 03)

[Albireo]

Trick question, it just says to identify the "landscape", so my answer is "Earth".

[hstarbuck]

I think that what kind of looks like a frozen landscape is really just clouds. If you follow the "clouds" down, after they break up into islands, you reach a point where they space out enough so we can see that they cast a shadow on the ocean. This is my first post here--how exciting.

[zbvhs]

When we run out of imagination for what to do with the ISS (which is probably pretty much already), why not send it out to the Moon for use as an orbiting outpost for Lunar exploration? Add propulsion and guidance and you have a bona fide spacecraft. It has lots of room for long-duration stays by crew members. Resupply just means a longer transfer orbit and larger vehicles for the job. Something like the Constellation orbiter could be used for crew rotation and emergency return. Manned and unmanned landers could be sent out separately. Idiots in the Congress are already talking about abandoning and deorbiting the ISS. We need a good solid reason for keeping it up there.

[tonystar]

Agulnas National Park, South Africa.

[podkayn]

A lot of discussion of exactly what latitude, etc. the ISS was over seem to miss the obvious fact that the camera is aimed at a slant, not straight down toward the center of the Earth. Whatever the ISS is directly over is off the frame to the upper right. I stand by my earlier post of southern Africa, Antarctica, and the Arctic Ocean between them.

[Chris Peterson]

A lot of discussion of exactly what latitude, etc. the ISS was over seem to miss the obvious fact that the camera is aimed at a slant, not straight down toward the center of the Earth. Whatever the ISS is directly over is off the frame to the upper right. I stand by my earlier post of southern Africa, Antarctica, and the Arctic Ocean between them.

At its furthest south, the ISS would be right between the southern tip of Africa and Antarctica. From there, Africa would be just over the northern horizon, and invisible, and Antarctica would be just off the southern horizon, and invisible. All that would be visible would be ocean. It isn't possible for the ISS to see both at the same time (and it probably isn't possible to see Antarctica at all, except maybe for the Antarctic Peninsula on the distant horizon).

[rtorlas]

I don't feel like trying to figure out Celestia, so here is the EXIF time data. You just have to figure out what timezone the camera is set in. I would guess GMT.

DateTimeOriginal - 2010:02:20 02:04:57
DateTimeDigitized - 2010:02:20 02:04:57

[website.reader3]

I cheated. The EXIF information shows that the photo was taken at 2010:02:20 02:04:57 UTC. Then I found an ISS tracker that had past Keplerian elements for this time period.

Voila, the ISS was over the Atlantic Ocean off Porto Alegre, the southern most tip of Brasil, and near Uruguay. The terrain matches.

The camera is a Nikon D2Xs and the image was 3072 x 2098 pixels, 24 bit color depth.

[killers8]

I'm pretty sure this was taken at 8:38:30 PM EST on February 19, 2010 give or take one minute over Australia.
17.32 degrees South
132.1 degrees East

But, what you just said might be right..

[MPKnowles]

Um, er, being Canadian I have to vote for the Great White North (one glance at the photo indicates why). My guess is the northern end of Hudson Bay....

[maryellen]

This looks like Tollya Bay on the Taymyr Penninsula (Siberia)

[Arie Melamed-Katz]

I cheated. The EXIF information shows that the photo was taken at 2010:02:20 02:04:57 UTC. Then I found an ISS tracker that had past Keplerian elements for this time period.

Voila, the ISS was over the Atlantic Ocean off Porto Alegre, the southern most tip of Brasil, and near Uruguay. The terrain matches.

The camera is a Nikon D2Xs and the image was 3072 x 2098 pixels, 24 bit color depth.

Are you sure regarding the ISS tracker? I think that it should be dark over Brasil at 02:04 UTC.
I used Heavens Above and found that the ISS passed south to Easter Island at this time. It looks to me more reasonable with the light since it's approximately the hour of dusk in this part of the pacific and indeed there is a dark area in the upper-right part of the picture.

[Puma2you]

From the left you can see Asia and then Alaska, transitioning down the Pacific Coast. San Francisco Bay is seen between two of the Solar panels, and Baja California to the right.

[oneliteuser]

It's Planet Earth...

[The Code]

Well I took a good look, at google earth. For 1 hour I searched , I am still non the wiser.

Mark

[JimK]

Looks like the southern coast of Australia with Antarctica across the Southern Ocean

[Jay]

I vote for Antarctica. When the image is viewed in a graphics program that allows viewing the big image at 1:1, and the orientation is changed, glacial flows travelling in two directions become veryapparent. Looks like the Ronne Ice Shelf is above and to the left of the ISS and the Ross Ice Shelf is above, behind (below) and to the right of the ISS in the image presented in the APOD.

[winer]

To me it looks like broken ice floating in water, so I will go with the coastline of Antarctica.

[Jay]

When we run out of imagination for what to do with the ISS (which is probably pretty much already), why not send it out to the Moon for use as an orbiting outpost for Lunar exploration? Add propulsion and guidance and you have a bona fide spacecraft. It has lots of room for long-duration stays by crew members. Resupply just means a longer transfer orbit and larger vehicles for the job. Something like the Constellation orbiter could be used for crew rotation and emergency return. Manned and unmanned landers could be sent out separately. Idiots in the Congress are already talking about abandoning and deorbiting the ISS. We need a good solid reason for keeping it up there.

Your idea is excellent. Not much would be required in terms of propulsion systems since high speed travel to the moon is not really necessary. I'm sure a pushing job could be done robotically. The problem is that space companies don't get to overcharge many billions of $$ for recycling an existing space vehicle. Although I'm sure they would try.

[foxthatroxx]

I am generally considered geographically challenged, but my best guess eastern coast of Russia and the Bering Sea. Now...does anybody know how to find out for sure?

[Dishman]

Hey guys, all that is water, ocean and clouds. The straight line is simply cloud line.

[Dishman]

I should say sharp, not straight, and it's darker simply because it's slowly getting into terminator.
Oh, and sorry, 'guys and galls'.

[OzRattler]

Well if nothing else, reading through the guesses and estimations, there is ONE thing that is certainly clear.

There are a lot more new users and registered participants thanks to the question!!! Very Clever. (Me included)

Australia - Canarvon ~ Western Australia.

Have fun!!

Rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
"Insanity is so Confusing!"

[mrmish]

I think it shows the northern part of Canada and a part of Greenland.

[darthdruid]

great lakes?