European Space Agency astronaut Samatha Cristoforetti captured a photo of part of the Tanggula Mountains in China near Hala Lake as the International Space Station orbited 260 miles above Earth on September 5, 2022. Since November 2000, when the station began hosting human astronauts, crew members have taken hundreds of thousands of images of Earth’s land, oceans and atmosphere, and even the Moon, through the crew’s Earth observations.
Their Earth photographs record how the planet changes over time as a result of human activity and natural events. This allows scientists to monitor disasters, direct response on the ground and study a range of phenomena, from the movement of glaciers to wildlife in cities.