Beautiful set of photos: Viewing Earth from the International Space Station

French astronaut Thomas Pesquet took thousands of pictures around the Earth during his 6 months working on the International Space Station (ISS).

Astronaut Pesquet from the European Space Agency has returned to Earth after nearly 6 months participating in the Crew-2 mission on the ISS. Pesquet's colleagues also include Shane Kimbrough, Megan McArthur from NASA and Akihiko Hoshide from the Japan Aerospace Research and Development Agency (JAXA).

According to Business Insider, the astronauts began their journey back to Earth on November 7 aboard SpaceX's Crew Dragon spacecraft and landed in the Gulf of Mexico a day later. Pesquet's job was to photograph the Earth. In 6 months, he took more than 245,000 photos from an altitude of 400km.

This photo taken on July 9 shows the Paraná River and part of Uruguay. According to Pesquet, the photo was taken at sunset, so the surrounding landscape is a bit pastel pink.

Photo taken of the Karkheh Dam in Iran on July 30. 'I was surprised with the blue puddles in the image, their contrast with the arid ground,' Pesquet shared on Flickr.

A salt lake in Iran taken on August 17. On Pesquet's Flickr account, many comments expressed their impression of the Earth's view from a height of hundreds of kilometers.

The Earth's aurora borealis was photographed by Pesquet on November 4. This is a powerful aurora, created after a solar explosion. "Some of the bright areas of the aurora are even higher than the position of the space station ," Pesquet said.

An aurora with green color taken on August 20. During his 6 months working on the ISS, Pesquet has seen 15-20 aurora borealis with different colors and intensities.

This photo on March 29 shows the coast of Namibia, a country in Africa. The Crew-2 mission is the third time SpaceX, the space company of billionaire Elon Musk, has taken charge of sending astronauts to the ISS, also the first time a reusable rocket has been used for a NASA mission.

The photo on June 3 captures a crop art field in Canada, which looks like a barcode or computer error from afar.

While flying over the African continent, Pesquet captured circular fields in the middle of the desert. 'The round, square fields or salt lakes are not so beautiful up close, but amaze us when viewed from above with great size,' Pesquet shared.

A field taken on August 17 with rectangular patches of color, is likened by Pesquet to a work of art when viewed from above. Because the location could not be determined, Pesquet assumed the field was in Mexico or the southwestern United States.

These multi-colored patterns are actually a strip of sand in Australia, taken on May 14.

A salt lake in Australia with red-brown soils in the middle of a white lake.

With a speed of 28,000km/h, the ISS orbits the Earth for 90 minutes, so astronauts can admire 16 sunsets and sunrises a day. This is a photo of the sunset over the ocean taken on June 15.

From an altitude of 400km above sea level, the astronauts also saw some weather phenomena from the ISS. This photo shows a cloud of smoke covering the area near Sequoia National Park in California (USA) on August 20.

This July 4 photo shows Tropical Storm Elsa, prompting New York to declare a state of emergency. "What shocked me during the mission was to see extreme weather and climate phenomena," Pesquet said.

Smoke rises from burned forests in Canada on August 12. At the COP26 conference on climate change, Pesquet discussed with French President Emmanuel Macron from the ISS about humanity's response to climate change.

'Every year, we break records for fires, storms and floods. I see a clear difference (in terms of weather phenomena) compared to the mission 4-5 years ago ," Pesquet told the French president. The photo above shows Upsala, a melting glacier.

Photo taken in Normandy (France), home of Pesquet when he first stepped onto the ISS on April 28.

Clouds move through Earth's atmosphere on June 11. 'When you look at the Earth from space, you will see that its resources are very limited ,' shared Pesquet.