One gem of a photo for St Patrick's Day! Astronaut Tim Peake captures the lush green Emerald Isle from on board the ISS
- The British astronaut took the photograph of Ireland from the ISS
- It shows the lush-green landscape of the Emerald Isle on St Patrick's Day
- He will have opportunities to take further shots of the country today because the ISS will pass over Ireland a total of 16 times
Cracking open a can of Guinness on the International Space Station (ISS) would likely result in chaos, so instead, Tim Peake is celebrating St Patrick’s Day by sharing a photograph of Ireland.
The British astronaut took this photograph of the Emerald Isle as the station orbited 255 miles (410km) above the Earth.
He will have opportunities to take further shots of the country because the ISS will pass over Ireland a total of 16 times today.
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British astronaut Tim Peake has shared a photograph of Ireland (pictured) from 255 miles (410km) above the Earth on the International Space Station. He will have opportunities to take further shots of the country because the ISS will pass over Ireland a total of 16 times today
The ISS completes an orbit of Earth every 92.91 minutes and moves at 17,100mph (27,600km/h) per hour.
The snap is one of many impressive shots, ranging from countries and weather events to selfies, taken by Major Peake, who is three months into his mission.
He tweeted: 'The Emerald Isle is looking lush and green from space...Happy St Patrick's Day to all down there!'
Last month, he captured storms raging across Europe and Africa in all their mesmerising beauty.
The British astronaut tweeted a timelapse of the footage, explaining that it's 'amazing how much lightning can strike our planet in a short time.'
Earlier this year, as storms raged across Europe and Africa, Tim Peake captured them in all their mesmerising beauty from on-board the International Space Station. The footage was filmed as the ISS travelled over North Africa, Turkey and towards Russia (pictured)
STATS AND FACTS: THE ISS
Construction of the ISS began on 20 November 1998.
It supports a crew of up to six, with crews split into groups of three.
The station orbits at a height of about 255 miles (410km).
It has a total mass of about 990,000 pounds (450,000kg) and has living space roughly equivalent to a five-bedroom house.
It completes an orbit of Earth every 92.91 minutes and moves at 17,100 miles (27,600km) per hour.
It has now been in space for more than 5,900 days, during which time it has completed more than 92,000 orbits of Earth, and has been continuously occupied for more than 13 years.
It was filmed as the ISS travelled over North Africa, Turkey and towards Russia.
The ideal conditions for lightning and thunderstorms occur where warm, moist air rises and mixes with cold air above.
These conditions occur almost daily in many parts of the Earth and rarely in other areas, making certain regions more prone to strikes.
For example, parts of Africa including the Democratic Republic of the Congo have the highest frequency of lightning on Earth.
This is caused by air from the Atlantic Ocean hitting mountains as it blows across the region.
Nasa tracks lightning strikes using satellites fitted with sensors and information from these satellites is sent to staff on Earth.
During the 33-second clip, a spattering of flashes is seen on the horizon.
As the ISS soars towards Eastern Europe, the flashes become more intense and centralised and the cloud cover thickens.
More lightning occurs over land than water because the sun heats the land surface faster than the ocean.
The heated land surface warms the air above it and that warm air rises to encounter cold air.
Researchers recently found that regardless of where in the world a person is, lightning bolts are at their most powerful at 8am.
The ISS completes an orbit of Earth every 92.91 minutes and moves at 17,100 miles (27,600km) per hour. It typically visible as it flies over the regions in the clip between 6pm and 7pm local time. Lightning strikes are shown by the bright flashes in the centre of this image
This is because there are fewer particles in the atmosphere overnight so it takes a more powerful charge to overcome the extra distance between these particles and release the bolt of power.
By comparison, more storms occur in the afternoon as solar heating charges a higher number of particles, but these storms are weaker.
Typical afternoon lightning might vary from 6,000 to 20,000 amps per ground flash but powerful morning lightning to ground strokes can average 30,000 amps.
Urbanised areas are also 5 per cent more likely to be hit by thunderstorms, on a given day, than rural areas of the same size.
Storms were more likely to hit these urbanised areas during warmer months, in July and August, in the late afternoon and early evening.
During the 33-second clip, a spattering of flashes is seen on the horizon. As the ISS soars towards Eastern Europe, the flashes become more intense and centralised and the cloud cover thickens (pictured)
These findings add further weight to the fact rising temperatures increase the frequency of storms, but also that increased pollution levels in urban areas play a major role.
In addition to pollution, urbanised areas cause more storms because they create 'urban heat-islands'.
Concentrations of buildings can increase temperatures causing low pressures to form above cities, compared to high pressures in rural areas.
This causes a so-called 'low-level atmospheric convergence', which forces air up into thunderstorms.
Buildings may also change the flow and direction of winds, which in turn changes pressure levels and affects the upward movement of air.