The colors of the agricultural fields surrounding Paris are striking in the
springtime, even when viewed from a 400 km orbital altitude. Astronauts on board
the International Space Station photographed Paris using a digital camera and
downlinked the image to the ground.
This photograph of Paris is the latest to be included in a collection of the
best photographs of cities taken by astronauts. This “Cities from Space” collection represents a
unique view of cities around the world as they appear from orbit. A new feature
has recently been added that allows zooming and panning to interactively view
geometrically corrected photos. This feature is available for a related, more
detailed photograph of Paris taken at the same time by the
Space Station Alpha crewmembers.