File:2011 Hurricane Katia off the Northeastern US Coastline.JPG

English: Hurricane Katia had diminished to Category 1 strength on the Saffir-Simpson scale by the time this astronaut photograph was taken, but it still presented an impressive cloud circulation as its centre passed the north-eastern coast of the United States. The approximate center of Hurricane Katia is visible at image right, with its outer cloud bands extending across the center of the view. A small part of New York—including Long Island and the Hudson River—is visible through a gap in the cloud cover. The Hudson River has a chocolate brown coloration due to heavy loading with sediment, a consequence of flooding and erosion of the upstream watershed by precipitation from Hurricane Irene and Tropical Storm Lee. A plume of sediment is visible entering the Atlantic Ocean on the southern coastline of Long Island, directly to the south of New York City (partially obscured by clouds). Crew members on the International Space Station can take images like this one by looking outwards at an angle through ISS windows—much like taking photographs of the ground from a commercial airliner window, albeit from an average altitude of 400 kilometres.