Hurricane Ian is pictured approaching the west coast of Florida as a category 4 storm. The International Space Station was orbiting 259 miles above the Gulf of Mexico at the time of this photograph. Credit: NASA
Hurricane Ian is pictured above in a stunning photograph that was taken by an astronaut onboard the International Space Station (ISS). When this photograph was snapped, the ISS was orbiting 258 miles above the Caribbean Sea east of Belize. At the time, Ian was just south of Cuba gaining strength and heading toward Florida. In the foreground (from left), are the Soyuz MS-22 crew ship, docked to the Rassvet module, and the Soyuz MS-21 crew ship, docked to the Prichal module.
There were a couple of other stunning photographs released by NASA of Hurricane Ian from the ISS:
A crew member onboard the International Space Station took this photograph of Hurricane Ian on September 26 while orbiting more than 400 kilometers (250 miles) above Earth’s surface. At the time, the space station was located over the Caribbean Sea east of Belize, and Hurricane Ian was just south of Cuba. Over the course of the day, it grew from a tropical storm to a category-2 hurricane. Credit: NASA
Above is another photograph of Hurricane Ian captured by a crew member onboard the International Space Station. When the picture was taken, on September 26, the ISS was orbiting more than 400 kilometers (250 miles) above Earth’s surface. At the time, Hurricane Ian was just south of Cuba and the space station was located over the Caribbean Sea east of Belize. Over the course of that day, it grew from a tropical storm to a category-2 hurricane.
Hurricane Ian is pictured approaching the west coast of Florida as a category 4 storm. The International Space Station was orbiting 259 miles above the Gulf of Mexico at the time of this photograph. Credit: NASA
This picture of Hurricane Ian was photographed from the ISS while the orbiting lab was over 250 miles above the Gulf of Mexico. At the time this photograph was taken, Ian was approaching the west coast of Florida as a category 4 storm.
Fantastic images of what at the time of this exposure was still a tropical storm! Of course, as we all know Ian intensified to a cat 4 hurricane that almost became a cat 5!! I suspect in the future hurricanes of this magnitude will be as powerful and more frequent thanks to Climate Change due to the warming of the planet!