The observation window on the shuttle provides a fantastic view of Earth’s landscape—when the view through Earth’s atmosphere is not covered by clouds. The image (featured at left) shows the oil slick in the Gulf of Mexico  which has been a great concern to everyone in the U.S.—especially for those in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Florida--as seen from the ISS.

Educators can build off of STS-132 videos as well as other NASA imaging resources at the  Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth, which has a great searchable collection of astronaut images such as this image of our nation’s capital city and surrounding Potomac waterway.

There are also more structured learning activities on the Gateway to Astronaut Photography site.  The astronauts photos taken via the ISS Earth Observation Window are also opportunities for integrating independent data with data from other resources including unmanned satellites and field observations. The Earth System Science lessons linked to astronaut photos are organized by topical units, which are cross-referenced with other data sources and applications. Questions within the topical units are designed to highlight the synergy between ground-based observations and space-based observations. As the web presentation advises, “The ability of astronauts to interact directly with ground-based observers studying dynamic events is a key advantage to human space-based observations."

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