Day 36: Earth as Art

NASA and the United States Geographical Survey (USGS) recently released images of Earth as seen from space.  But they aren't the typical blue-green images with swirling white clouds that you are likely thinking of.  "They show cloud formations, coastlines, mountain ranges, islands, deltas, glaciers, and rivers -- all them looking more like abstract art than the familiar features we see from the ground. That's partly because, unlike the human eye, the Landsat sensors "see" the Earth only in bands of red, green, blue and infrared light. When combined into a single image, "fascinating patterns, colors, and shapes emerge," according to the USGS."

"The Landsat satellites are part of the joint USGS and NASA Earth-observing missions, which have been making images of the planet since 1972. Every 16 days, the satellites image the entire Earth. Beyond their beauty, the images are used for a host of scientific purposes, Matt Larsen explained."  Including monitoring changes in ice pack, growth of land mass and elevation, and where vegetation grows.  MSNBC.com

You can see the whole slideshow of images here.

   
             Yukon Delta, Canada                          Belcher Islands, Canada


   
  Dardzha Peninsula, Turkmenistan            Empty Quarter, Saudi Arabia

Twitter Updates – Follow Good News for Isla on Twitter.
RSS Subscription – Subscribe to Good News for Isla via RSS in a reader.

Email Updates – Sign up for email updates.