The Caspian Sea - August 22, 2007 | Satellite: Terra

A surprising stretch of green vegetation in otherwise pale, arid terrain, the Elburz Mountains (bottom center) in northern Iran capture the majority of the moisture coming from the Caspian Sea.

Several scattered fires (red dots) have been detected by the MODIS on the Terra satellite in this image from August 7, 2002. Along the shores of Turkmenistan, the Caspian Sea is swirling with blues and greens, which may be a mixture of sediment and microscopic marine plants called phytoplankton.