Over the past few hundred years probably no area of the world has seen
its borders change as frequently as Central and Eastern Europe. The
region's latest political boundaries have been superimposed in white
upon this true-color image of Europe acquired by the Moderate-resolution
Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on September 29, 2000, flying aboard NASA's Terra
spacecraft. At the top of the image, one can see the Danish islands of
Sjaelland and Fyn, and the Danish mainland. Copenhagen, the capital of
Denmark, is located on Sjaelland, the larger of the islands.
Moving towards the bottom of the image, the Rhine River is snaking its
way north along the border of Germany and France. At Germany's southern
edge, the dark brown Alps can be discerned through an uneven layer of
clouds.
Brian Montgomery, Robert Simmon, and Reto Stockli, based on data from the MODIS Science Team