This website, Visible Earth, shows a collection of satellite images and animations taken by NASA of our planet. I found the satellite photo taken by NASA of the entire earth at night quite interesting. The amount of development or lack thereof is evident from the concentrated areas of light. The amount of information we can gain from taking an outside perspective on our earth is astonishing, and an integral part of geography. Check out this image as well as some of the other ones, our planet is beautiful but us humans have done quite some damage to it!
I like this website and how it brings very detailed high resolution photos to the viewer. One photo that I think is interesting is the SPACE RADAR IMAGE OF SAKURA-JIMA VOLCANO, JAPAN. In class we are discussing volcanoes and this photo provides a unique perspective.
There are also many other photos that show human’s impact on the Earth. Earth’s City Lights shows how populated the Earth is and there is a photo showing the negative effects of deforestation in Brazil.
I also really liked the city lights picture, I had never seen anything like it before. The heavily lighted areas seem to match up spot on with more industrialized areas of the world. The “Blue Marble” picture was the clearest picture I have ever seen of Earth taken from space. My least favorite were probably the haze pictures, they just seemed a little boring compared to everything else. Great website!
Those pictures are very interesting. My particular favorite is the one of the solar flare in green. It will be interesting to see what kind of new pictures NASA brings us -if any- with their new explorations. The deforestation image was also intriguing, and it would be helpful if these images could be used to asses the damage to the planet from pollution and overuse.
I found the images of the dust storm and the fires in Northern Washington really amazing. To be able to see the how the wind currents help direct the way the smoke and sand blows shows the amazing power of nature. Having never lived in an area with constant worries about forest fires or sandstorms, I’ve never been able to appreciate how being downwind of such an event can affect my life.
Images of Earth from space are always fascinating and awesomely striking because they show us how small we are in comparison to the rest of the world around us. To me, they’re beautiful in their ability to instill this sense of humility, and because they often look like abstract pieces of art rather than the outline of the landforms we know so well. In addition to being stunning and moving photographs, these satellite images of the Earth’s surface play an important role in understanding the processes and patterns that occur around us everyday. Great find!