Pre-Winter Storm, Southwestern Australia (NASA, International Space Station, 03/29/14)

One of the Expedition 39 crew members aboard the International Space Station on March 29 used a 14mm lens on a digital still camera to photograph this pre-winter storm located just off the coast of southwestern Australia. A solar array panel on the orbital outpost is in the left side of the frame. [source]

In Crew Earth Observations (CEO), crewmembers on the International Space Station (ISS) photograph the Earth from their unique point of view located 200 miles (322 km) above the surface. Photographs record how the planet is changing over time, from human-caused changes like urban growth and reservoir construction, to natural dynamic events such as hurricanes, floods and volcanic eruptions.

A major emphasis of CEO is to monitor disaster response events in support of the International Disaster Charter (IDC). CEO imagery provides researchers on Earth with key data to understand the planet from the perspective of the ISS. Crewmembers have been photographing Earth from space since the early Mercury missions beginning in 1961. The continuous images taken from the ISS ensure this record remains unbroken. [source]

Expedition 39 was the 39th expedition to the International Space Station. It marked the first time the ISS had been under command of a Japanese astronaut, space veteran Koichi Wakata. After Expedition 21 in 2009 and Expedition 35 in 2013, it was only the third time an ISS-crew has been led by a non-NASA or RSA crew member.