50 Stunning Satellite Photos of Earth

Great Sandy Scars – In a small corner of the vast Great Sandy Desert in Western Australia, large sand dunes –the only sand in this desert of scrub and rock — appear as lines stretching from left to right. The light-colored fan shapes are scars from wildfires.

Greenland Coast – Along Greenland’s western coast, a small field of glaciers surrounds Baffin Bay.

Guinea-Bissau – Guinea-Bissau is a small country in West Africa. Complex patterns can be seen in the shallow waters along its coastline, where silt carried by the Geba and other rivers washes out into the Atlantic Ocean.

Jau Park – Fed by multiple waterways, Brazil’s Negro River is the Amazon River’s largest tributary. The mosaic of partially-submerged islands visible in the channel disappears when rainy season downpours raise the water level.

Lena Delta – The Lena River, some 2,800 miles (4,400 km) long, is one of the largest rivers in the world. The Lena Delta Reserve is the most extensive protected wilderness area in Russia. It is an important refuge and breeding grounds for many species of Siberian wildlife.

Jordan – Meandering wadis combine to form dense, branching networks across the stark, arid landscape of southeastern Jordan. The Arabic word “wadi” means a gully or streambed that typically remains dry except after drenching, seasonal rains.

Kamchatka Peninsula – The eastern side of Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula juts into the Pacific Ocean west of Alaska. In this winter image, a volcanic terrain is hidden under snow-covered peaks and valley glaciers feed blue ice into coastal waters.

Von Karman Vortices – As air flows over and around objects in its path, spiraling eddies, known as Von Karman vortices, may form. The vortices in this image were created when prevailing winds sweeping east across the northern Pacific Ocean encountered Alaska’s Aleutian Islands.

Lake Carnegie – Ephemeral Lake Carnegie, in Western Australia, fills with water only during periods of significant rainfall. In dry years, it is reduced to a muddy marsh.

Lake Disappointment – Surrounded by sand dunes, Lake Disappointment is an ephemeral salt lake in one of the most remote areas of Western Australia. An early explorer supposedly named the lake in 1897 after following a number of creeks that he thought would lead to a large lake; they did, but the lake’s extremely salty water was not drinkable.