This panorama view, photographed by an Expedition 40 crew member on the International Space Station, shows the tropical blue waters of the Persian Gulf. Strong north winds often blow in summer, churning up dust from the entire length of the desert surfaces of the Tigris and Euphrates valleys (top left). Dust partly obscures the hundreds of kilometers of Iraq's light-green agricultural lands along these rivers (left). The Caspian Sea cuts the horizon.