You have never seen our beautiful little country before

In recent years, our country has been regularly photographed by astronauts and satellites. These are the most beautiful pictures

Coastal pearl necklace
On May 13, 2006, astronaut Jeff Williams photographed the coast of the Netherlands. The Dutch and German Wadden Islands in particular are eye-catching and lie like a pearl necklace off the northern coast. Furthermore, many lakes, waterways, and canals can be seen, such as Flossen in Friesland and the North Sea Channel in northern Holland. This American astronaut picture was among the 10 most beautiful space pictures of 2016. Download this image as a background image for your phone.

winter wonders
On February 11, 2021, our country was hit by its first major snow storm in ten years and the Netherlands turned completely white. Snow showers quickly dissipated, after which the Terra satellite captured this beautiful picture of our small country. Ice formation can be seen south of Afsluitdijk. Cities are clearly recognizable as light gray patches in the landscape.

The European Copernicus Sentinel-3 took a picture at the same time. Also note the United Kingdom, where the northeastern coast is covered in snow, but the interior is not. Do you want to download this image in high resolution? Go to the ESA website.

Andre Kuipers looks at the Netherlands
European Space Agency astronaut Andre Kuipers spent a total of 204 days in space, 11 days in 2004 and 193 days in 2011 and 2012. While aboard the International Space Station, he regularly photographed his home planet. For example, that led to the shot below. Unique image with beautiful colors and beautiful contrast with the cloud cover.

Ice formation in Dutch lakes
At the beginning of 2018, it froze hard in the Netherlands, which led to the formation of ice in IJmeer, Markermeer and IJsselmeer. The European satellite, Copernicus-Sentinel-2, pointed its camera at our country and immortalized this event.

Snow falling fog
In January 2017, a part of the Netherlands had to deal with a special type of snowfall, namely Snow falling fog. Snow fog often occurs near industrial areas and cities, that is, when fog drops freeze in a dense fog field. Then they turn into snowflakes. The result is that a small area becomes “white”. This can be clearly seen in the image below from the Landsat 8 satellite. Almost all local snow areas are located west of the industrial areas.

green landscape
We close with a color summer photo of astronaut Thomas Bisquet. “Netherlands is not the biggest country, but I still haven’t been able to get the whole country under one,” he wrote on Twitter. Earlier this year.