ISS: High-Definition Earth Views
Official HD cameras on the station, a live webcam pointed at Earth around the clock.
Moving camera: its position on the map is approximate.
About this view
This is NASA's official high-definition stream from the International Space Station: external cameras fixed to the station's hull, pointed at Earth, running around the clock. The station circles the planet at about 400 kilometres up, which is close enough that coastlines, river deltas and weather systems read clearly, and far enough that whole countries fit in the frame.
What you see depends on where the station is on its 90-minute lap: ocean most of the time (it covers most of the planet), then a continent sliding by in a few minutes, cloud fronts, the curve of the horizon with the thin blue band of atmosphere. Night passes bring city lights and, with luck, lightning storms flashing across thousands of kilometres.
The station keeps UTC, but the clock that matters is orbital: sixteen sunrises and sunsets a day, each a couple of minutes of the best light anywhere. When the feed shows a grey screen, the station is between relay satellites: the picture returns within minutes.
