Cloudy part of the world

Timelapse made from images taken by ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet on the International Space Station. Thomas commented:

"A timelapse flight over a cloudy part of the world, spot the International Space Station radiators top-right? Like our solar panels they move with us to keep our systems and the inhabitants inside at optimal temperature. They circulate ammonia, a toxic substance but very good at exchanging heat given off by our electical systems. It works like a car radiator or a refrigerator, but uses heat radiation instead of convection to keep cool. In space, sunlight warms very quickly, but the shade is very cold: varying from -100°C to +100°C. The goal is to keep the solar panels in the sun and the ammonia radiators in the shade. We have the temperature set at a constant 23°C – except when certain people are on board and complain about how cold it is… it has been raised to 25°C before, true story! If you know that the Space Station always flies from west to east you can roughly know which way the camera was pointing in each timelapse... in this case: south!"

The video is assembled on Earth and is around 25 times faster than a normal video.

ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet is spending six months on the International Space Station as part of his Proxima mission.  During Proxima, Thomas will perform around 50 scientific experiments for ESA and France’s space agency CNES as well as take part in many research activities for the other Station partners.
 
 The mission is part of ESA’s vision to use Earth-orbiting spacecraft as a place to live and work for the benefit of European society while using the experience to prepare for future voyages of exploration further into the Solar System.
 
 More about the Proxima mission: http://www.esa.int/proxima
 Connect with Thomas Pesquet: http://thomaspesquet.esa.int