Winter Olympics Cities from Space: NASA Satellite Views (Photos)

Earth From Space: New Olympic Coastal Cluster

The 2014 Winter Olympics will bring athletes together in Sochi, Russia, to showcase the best in winter sports. See views of the Sochi Winter Olympics from space, as well as past Winter Olympics cities in this gallery courtesy of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. This false color satellite image from 2013 reveals a largely agricultural area that was transformed into the Coastal Olympic Cluster with the nearby Olympic Village and Rail Station with transport to the Mountain Cluster.

ISS View of Sochi During Olympics

One of the Expedition 38 crew members aboard the International Space Station downlinked this vertical 600mm night view of Sochi, Russia, which clearly shows the site of the 2014 Winter Olympics while they are just a few days under way. Fisht Stadium where the Opening Ceremonies were held on Feb. 7 is easily recognizable as the bright circular structure. This image was released Feb. 10, 2014.

Sochi Winter Olympic Sites Coastal Cluster Seen From Space

The Black Sea resort of Sochi, Russia, is the warmest city ever to host the Winter Olympic Games, which open on Feb. 7, 2014, and run through Feb. 23. This north-looking image, acquired on Jan. 4, 2014, by the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer instrument on NASA's Terra spacecraft, shows the Sochi Olympic Park Coastal Cluster, which was built for Olympic indoor sports. [Read the Full Story Behind This Photo Here]

Sochi Winter Olympic Sites Mountain Cluster

The 2014 Winter Olympic ski runs may be rated double black diamond, but they're not quite as steep as they appear in this image of the skiing and snowboarding sites for the Sochi Winter Olympic Games, acquired on Jan. 4, 2014, by NASA's Terra satellite. Rosa Khutar ski resort near Sochi, Russia, is in the valley at center, and the runs are visible on the shadowed slopes on the left-hand side of the valley. [Read the Full Story Behind This Photo Here]

Winter Olympics City: Vancouver View from Space

The Thematic Mapper on the Landsat 5 satellite captured this image of Vancouver on Sept. 7, 2011. Flowing through braided channels, the Fraser River meanders toward the sea, emptying through multiple outlets.

Winter Olympics City: Turin, Italy 2006

City lights at night along the France-Italy border, Europe are featured in this image photographed by an Expedition 23 crew member on the International Space Station (ISS). The brightly lit metropolitan areas of Torino (Italy), Lyon, and Marseille (both in France) stand out amidst numerous smaller urban areas in this dramatic photograph. The image captures the night time appearance of the France-Italy border area between the mountainous Alps to the north (not shown) and the island of Corsica in the Ligurian Sea to the south (top). The full moon reflects brightly on the water surface and also illuminates the tops of low patchy clouds over the border (center).

Winter Olympics City: Nagano, Japan 1998

The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on the Aqua satellite captured this stunning view of Japan’ four largest islands on Feb. 20, 2004. The snow-covered southern arm of Hokkaido extends into the upper left corner. Honshu, Japan’s largest island, curves across the center of the image. Shikoku, right, and Kyushu, left, form the southern tip of the group. Japan is mostly mountainous, and, as the dusting of snow in this image shows, is cold in the north and more tropical in the south. A single red dot marks the location of an active fire.

Winter Olympics City: Lillehammer, Norway 1994

In this mostly cloud-free true-color scene, much of Scandinavia can be seen to be still covered by snow. From left to right across the top of this image are the countries of Norway, Sweden, Finland, and northwestern Russia. The Baltic Sea is located in the bottom center of this scene, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the north (in the center of this scene) and the Gulf of Finland to the northeast. This image was acquired on March 15, 2002, by the Moderate-resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), flying aboard NASA's Terra satellite.

Winter Olympics City: Albertville, France 1992

This image of Europe, and the Middle East at night is a composite assembled from data acquired by the Suomi NPP satellite in April and October 2012. The new data was mapped over existing Blue Marble imagery of Earth to provide a realistic view of the planet. The nighttime view was made possible by the satellite’s “day-night band” of the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite.

Winter Olympics City: Calgary, Canada 1988

Landsat image of the Calgary, Canada metropolitan area for July, 1990. Vegetation appears green, water looks blue, and built up land is depicted as purple.

Winter Olympics City: Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina 1984 (Yugoslavia)

This natural-color satellite image shows the smoke streaming from the dozens of fires in southeastern Europe. It was collected by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) aboard the Aqua satellite on August 26, 2012.