Columbus Captures Earth Images

One of the experiments housed on the European Columbus laboratory’s external platform onboard the International Space Station (ISS) is an automated eye in the sky known as the Earth Viewing Camera (EVC). Now, after several weeks of troubleshooting by the EVC team in the Netherlands, the first pictures from the orbiting camera have arrived safely back on Earth. The initial image, showing a dimly illuminated cloud-covered region, was successfully downloaded on March 6th. A second picture , the first to be produced on command from the ground, was taken soon after dawn on March 7th and shows a scattering of white and pink clouds close to the Aleutian Islands in the north Pacific. The camera is intended to be a valuable resource for public outreach and education. The EVC points continuously at a fixed angle toward the Earth. The camera weighs 7.8 kg and measures 0.4 x 0.28 x 0.16 m. It uses a commercial, off the shelf, sensor provided by Kodak, with a 2k x 2k detector. It is able to capture colour images of the Earth’s surface that cover an area of 200 x 200 km. Located on the starboard side of the ISS, Columbus sweeps around the Earth once every 90 minutes. As the Station’s orbital path is inclined at about 52 degrees to the equator, the Earth Viewing Camera has the potential to take pictures of anywhere on the Earth’s surface, from England to the southern tip of South America. This includes almost all of the densely populated parts of the world.