NASA is on a mission.

Unlike most of their missions, which usually include a spaceship launched beyond the realms of our atmosphere, this time it’s focused on Earth.

They are encouraging the public to make use of their recent upload of resources “for their own storytelling by allowing downloads, making images easy to embed and adding caption files for videos,” reports CNN.

Launching an online library consisting of 140 000 images, video and audio files featuring items from all over this planet and beyond, a substantial amount of them feature satellite images of Africa.

The material in the database comes from NASA’s recent and historic missions, along with captions that allow the public to understand the pieces in their original context, including dates, locations and in some cases, camera information such as which lens was used.

CNN compiled a list of images of Africa from above, and it’s quite extraordinary to see the range of beauty that comes with our massive continent. After all, Africa is not a country.

Lake Afrera, Ethiopia – This hypersaline lake, called Lake Afrera, is in the Danakil Depression in northern Ethiopia, it can be seen in this image taken by the NASA Terra spacecraft in 2014.

Betsiboka River, Madagascar – This image taken from the International Space Station 2009 shows the Betsiboka River in Madagascar.

Limpopo River, South Africa – The swollen Limpopo River was captured by the NASA Terra spacecraft as it flew over South Africa and Zimbabwe in 2013.

Sossus Vlei, Namibia – Winds moving north caused the deep red dunes that can be seen in this image of the Sossus Vlei clay pan in Namibia, taken by an astronaut in 2001.

Cairo, Egypt – The pyramids at Giza can be seen in the center of this image taken from the International Space Station in 2012, with the modern Cairo metropolitan area to the left and the Sahara desert on the right.

River, Sierra Leone – The Sierra Leone river, captured in 2014 by the NASA Terra spacecraft.

Mount Kilimanjaro, Tanzania – A crew member on the International Space Station captured this image of Mount Kilimanjaro, Tanzania, covered in snow and ice in 2007.

Carthage, Tunisia – The ancient city of Carthage in Tunisia is pictured here, as photographed by a crew member on the International Space Station in 2006.

Tifernine dunes, Algeria – The Tifernine dunes of east-central Algeria are pictured in this image, captured in 1995. “The dunes lie in a basin of dark-colored rocks heavily cut by winding stream courses (top right),” explains the caption in the Nasa Image and Video Gallery. “Very occasional storms allow the streams to erode the dark rocks and transport the sediment to the basin. Winds then mould the stream sediments into the complex dune shapes so well displayed here.”

I took a gander on the site and, searching for “South Africa”, found this:

Pretty sweet, huh?

You can check CNN’s full list of African satellite images HERE and browse NASA’s library HERE.

[source:cnn]