The snaking Rakaia River in New Zealand has won DigitalGlobe's best satellite image of 2011.
The sinuous blue strips trace down the rocky course of the river to the Pacific Ocean, from Canterbury on the South Island.
DigitalGlobe asked Facebook users to choose its best image of last year, with voters choosing from twenty including Ground Zero, New York and Palm Island, Dubai and the space shuttle Atlantis being moved into position in Florida.
The shapes created by watercourses were hugely popular in the top picks.
The streaks made by Bombetoka Bay, Madagascar, and the flooding in China, Missouri and Australia in 2011 made it into the top 20.
Industrial scenes were also plentiful. Earthquake damage at the Dai Ichi Power Plant, Japan, a huge a concentrated solar power plant in Nevada and the patterns of urban development in China were up there with natural wonders.
DigitalGlobe is one of several companies offering high resolution images of Earth from space.
Today released a striking satellite image of the semi-submerged Italian cruise ship, the Costa Concordia.
The demonstrates the ship's immense size compared smaller ships darting about the Mediterranean sea.