Earth from Space - Image Description

Thunderheads, Borneo, Indonesia

Late afternoon sun casts long shadows from high thunderhead anvils over southern Borneo. Crews aboard the International Space Station have recently concentrated on panoramic views of clouds--taken with lenses similar to the focal length of the human eye. These images reveal the kinds of views crews see -- huge areas of the planet, with a strong three-dimensional sense of what it is like to fly 350 km above the Earth.

Winds usually blow in different directions at different altitudes. High-altitude winds are clearly sweeping the tops off the many tallest thunderclouds, generating long anvils of diffuse cirrus plumes that trail south. At low levels, "streets" of white dots -- fair-weather cumulus clouds -- are aligned with west-moving winds (image lower left). Small smoke plumes from forest fires onshore are also aligned west.

Storm formation near the horizon -- more than 1000 km distant (image center) -- is assisted as air currents rise over the central mountains of Borneo.

This service is provided by the International Space Station program and the JSC Earth Science & Remote Sensing Unit, ARES Division, Exploration Integration Science Directorate.