30 Abstract Satellite Images of Earth

Wed, Jul 2, 2008

Ecology, Green living

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By Tom Davie and Chris Ingham Brooke optimist_hires.jpg The Optimist, Kalahari Desert Namibia “It is impossible to give a clear account of the world, but art can teach us to reproduce it – just as the world reproduces itself in the course of its eternal gyrations.” Albert Camus Indeed, the world reproduces itself not only in the course of several gyrations, but at several different heights. At ground level, one can only imagine the sheer beauty of mountain ranges, deserts and deltas seen high up from NASA’s satellites. One can imagine – yes – however, they wouldn’t be quite prepared for the fact that from 400 miles away, the earth transforms into abstract art. The global landscape is impressionist, cubist and pointillist. Mother Nature is an abstract artist. The images you see below were taken at the turn of the Millennium, when NASA’s scientists had a brilliant idea: to scan through 400,000 images taken by the Landsat 7 satellite and display only the most the most beautiful. A handful of the best were painstakingly chosen and then displayed at the Library of Congress in 2000. We thought that it, in case you missed the exhibition, it would be amazing to dig up these images and provide some wallpapers for you to download. All images are used courtesy of NASA.


Browse Amazing Pictures of Earth, As Seen From 400 Miles Away

Guinea-Bissau

guinea_hires.jpg +Wallpaper Sized The rivers of this small country in West Africa, once known for its main economic activity – the slave trade – wash into the Atlantic Ocean, creating complex patterns of swirling silt below the surface of the shallow water.

Garden City, Kansas, USA

garden_hires.jpg +Wallpaper Sized

Home to the largest zoological facility in Kansas, Garden City is known for its depiction in Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood.The croplands surrounding the city are irrigated by a vast underground aquifer, creating bands of bright red healthy vegetation that dot the image.

Akpatok Island, Canada

akpatok +Wallpaper Sized One of Canada’s most amazing arctic islands, it is ringed with steep limestone cliffs that rise high above sea level and its central plateau. Unsurprisingly, it is only accessible only by air, which is pretty ideal for its cliff nesting seabirds called Akpatoks (or Thick-billed Murres as we know them).

Aleutian Clouds, North America

aleutian +Wallpaper Sized The Aleutian islands are an archipelago of over three hundred islands. They lie on the westernmost point of the united states on the pacific ring of fire. Once belonging to Russia, they were purchased along with Alaska by the Americans. The color differences you see in this photo are probably due to the different temperatures of the water droplets.

Mayn River, Siberia, Russia

mayn_hires.jpg +Wallpaper Size The magnificent contours of the Mayn pass through the sparsely populated forest-tundra subzones of Chukotka, a region teeming with moss, lichen, dwarf shrubs, and sedge. Little else can survive in such harsh climes and the river itself is frozen for nine months of the year.

Bolivian Deforestation

bolivia_hires.jpg +Wallpaper Sized

This image of the once vast carpet of rainforest in the Amazon basin is reminiscent of the cubist masters. Fanning out from the large blocks of land cleared by ranchers and loggers radiate arrangements of fields and farms, the remaining healthy vegetation appearing in bright red.

Anti-Atlas Mountains, Morocco

atlas_hires.jpg +Wallpaper Sized The image above is of the Anti-Atlas mountains, a 500km mountain range that forms part of the Atlas mountains. Located in Southern Morocco, the contrasts are absolutely astonishing: high peaks and river basins cover the area. There are a few Berber tribesmen living in the area. However, settlements are rare in this mountain realm, ruled by nature.

Ocean Sands, Bahamas

bahamas_hires.jpg +Wallpaper Sized From afar, this could look like an abstract painting, however this spectacular satellite image is of the dunes of sand and seaweed, sculpted by the ocean currents. The fluted, underwater dunes are formed in much the same way as sand dunes in deserts.

Lake Carnegie, Australia

carnegie_hires.jpg +Wallpaper Sized During periods of sustained rainfall the lake fills with water, however for most of the year it exists as muddy marshland that, from the air, resembles the lyrical swirls of artists such as Jackson Pollock.

Chilean Volcanoes

chilean_hires.jpg +Wallpaper Sized This great swathe of now dormant volcanoes lies on the border between Chile and the Catamarca province of Argentina and has glazed the surrounding area in a thick crust of magma roughly 2 miles (3.5 km) deep. The incredible palette of shades indicates both the age and mineral content of past lava flows.


Browse Amazing Pictures of Earth, As Seen From 400 Miles Away

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This post was written by:

Chris - who has written 598 posts on Environmental Graffiti.

Chris (50% English, 50% Italian) is the evil overlord and creator of Environmental Graffiti. When he's not battling those pesky Jedi Knights, he can be found blogging about weird and wonderful environmental news. It's sort of becoming a full time job...he is quite surprised!

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45 Comments For This Post

Leave a Reply

  1. jacqueline Says:

    absolutely breathtaking and my friend is speechless!

  2. Olmec Sinclair Says:

    Stunning. As with everything, a new perspective is gained with each new vantage point, every facet of reality is unique, existing as part of a infinite spectrum.

  3. Jim Goldstein Says:

    These are amazing. Glad to see these were rediscovered.

  4. Nikolas Schiller Says:

    Thanks for putting this page together. I sampled many of these satellite images four years ago when I first started to dabbled in geospatial art. You can view them on my “Maps of 2004” page if you’d like to see some derivative applications of these public domain satellite images. If your readers are interested in obtaining custom hyperspectral satellite imagery art check out ABOV.

  5. Joel Says:

    And people say there is no God…

  6. Julie Says:

    Baffin Bay is in Canada, not Greenland.

  7. Joe Says:

    check out my site: http://www.three-six-zero.com for more

  8. Ren Says:

    this is ugly,. nothing to be seen, just some forms. colors appear to be “nice”, whatever. it will not stop humans destroying it. nuclear mushrooms look nice too.

  9. Cherie Hanson Says:

    Wonderful images which lead us to understand the fragility and interconnectedness of life on the planet. Inspiring. And yes the images are definitely like non-representational, abstract art.

    Cherie Hanson

  10. Stijn van Drongelen Says:

    They’re called “Von Kármán Vortices”.

  11. Stimpy Says:

    this is ugly,. nothing to be seen, just some forms. colors appear to be “nice”, whatever. it will not stop humans destroying it. nuclear mushrooms look nice too.

    Your detached perspective is so sexy. Cowardly… but sexy nonetheless.

    …[yawn]…

  12. Otto S.R. Ongkosongo Says:

    A very interesting contribution to the beauty of nature as examples of puzzles and misteries of Allah creation.
    Thank you very much.
    Prof. Otto S.R. Ongkosongo

  13. Dilip Says:

    Clark, thanks for showing the World how wonderfully beautiful our planet is. This is surely artwork to the fullest. One simply gets inspired by looking at these photos. Keep up the good work.

  14. rose Says:

    It is NOT the Bolivian Forest

    It is the BRAZILIAN Forest

  15. Marvin Droogsma Says:

    Beautiful! Thanks for hosting this!

  16. srinivasan Says:

    it is really amazing…i now know why God sits up there and not here!

    Anyway, my (old) color TV sometimes produce such abstracts :-) but I cant download them and host it here…believe me…my TV unpredictably generate awesome abstracts now and then…..so I now learn to enjoy them too.

  17. WaterDragon Says:

    Great pics!

  18. Michael Says:

    hmmm …

    these are gorgeous. anyone know if there are full sized (1920×1200) or larger images available? full sized, scaled would make incredible wallpapers.

    – michael

  19. Sigurdur Fjalar Jonsson Says:

    Reminds me somewhat of an assignment I did with my students in Iceland using Google Earth. Here are some samples my daughter made.

    http://www.slideshare.net/sfjalar/artwork-earth/

    regards,

    S.Fjalar

  20. Craig Says:

    Hey

    If you like this take a look at EarthBook: http://earthbook.craigrozynski.com

    Craig

  21. justin Says:

    And people say there is no God…

    On which page were the pictures of heaven?

  22. Nonplussed Says:

    And people say there is no God…

    A very interesting contribution to the beauty of nature as examples of puzzles and misteries of Allah creation.

    Leave it to Internet users to turn this into a discussion about god. Can’t we just enjoy nature?

  23. Gabrielle Says:

    It’s a shame the Everglades one is 404

  24. Fred Says:

    It’s a shame the Everglades one is 404

    (1) click the link (2) get the 404 (3) add a “g” to the end of the link (4) hit return (5) everglades

  25. Anon. Says:

    And I thought I’d been saving the best of these over the years. I think I only have about five. Thanks for sharing.

  26. RJ Says:

    This reminds me why I want to be a photographer doing nature shots. People offer beauty in restricted senses, but the beauty that is naturally created is unsurpassed… Some are not suited to my taste, as I’m not usually one for modern art – but the ones of sand dunes, cloud vortexes, and the Glacier in Alaska are amazingly reminiscent of other natural phenomena. It’s like seeing a fish shape in a cloud in the sky… it takes imagination and an artistic eye to appreciate these. Nice to know so many intelligent people are commenting instead of the yahoos that usually post just to get a rise out of others by being rude… only a few… that and of course the ever-ignorant that have to be loud because they think they’re right when they’re not…

    Baffin Bay is in Canada, not Greenland.

    Actually, it’s between them – and being international waters, can be claimed by neither country as their own. Proof? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baffin_Bay Look at the map, and read all about it. It’s like Canada fighting for “rights” to the entire Niagra Falls…

    Leave it to Internet users to turn this into a discussion about god. Can’t we just enjoy nature?

    Grow up and get over yourself, you sound like my childish ex-boyfriend. Nobody was turning this into a “discussion” but you – they simply made “comments” as to their feelings when viewing these pictures as they were asked – you’d rather comment on their comments why? Because you have no artistic soul to view nature’s beauty, only see darkness and force arguments where they’re not needed? There’s a special place for inhumane people like you… Go there.

  27. cenovis Says:

    There’s a special place for inhumane people like you… Go there.

    Wow, bitter much? Don’t take out your hatred for your ex-boyfriend on some random internet user. He or she made a simple comment, but you felt the need to write an angry rant. Sounds like you’re the one who needs to grow up.

  28. Pierre Col - UbicMedia Says:

    This 30 pictures are really gorgeous. thanks !

  29. StephKaye Says:

    And people say there is no God…

    Beauty in nature is NOT proof of God. Look at how the rivers resemble blood vessels. The laws of nature and physics force all natural things to follow the same principles. There is no creativity there, just reason.

  30. Mark Says:

    Simply: WOW!

  31. Xtian Says:

    Thank you – these are amazing and an interesting fresh addition to my desktop gallery.

  32. Alex Says:
    And people say there is no God…

    Beauty in nature is NOT proof of God. Look at how the rivers resemble blood vessels. The laws of nature and physics force all natural things to follow the same principles. There is no creativity there, just reason.

    Of course there isn’t any proof of the existence of a God, but why is it we are enthralled by these natural patterns?

  33. michel Says:

    go to http://earthasart.gsfc.nasa.gov
    amazing

  34. Brian Says:

    Downright amazing.

  35. whoneedscredit Says:
    And people say there is no God…

    A very interesting contribution to the beauty of nature as examples of puzzles and misteries of Allah creation.

    Leave it to Internet users to turn this into a discussion about god. Can’t we just enjoy nature?

    Yeah it’s like when I watch a movie and they insist on giving me the name of the director and actors and stuff. Why can’t I just enjoy a movie without thinking about who made it?

  36. Ed Richardson Says:

    I like the Aleutian Clouds. Interesting photography!

  37. JC Crash Says:

    Interesting how computers combined with unique light-wave photography (and maybe a touch of Photoshop) has produced not only an in depth scientific analysis of the earth, but an interesting thing us geeks can display on our desktops. Good stuff. I thought the Bolivian deforestation was extremely interesting. It is also interesting that it is named deforestation rather than farming, proving there are still multiple ways of approaching various realities. Are we bad for removing natural growth or good for attempting to support ourselves through various techniques of personal support, small plot farming? I dunno, do you?

  38. Evert Schut Says:

    Earth is indeed amazing from above! Several artists (including myself) have embraces satellite images from Google earth and others as a new tool and source of inspiration. Check out my weblog with links to other artists around the world.

  39. Desktopsmania Says:

    it seem to be alive.

  40. Tips Photo Says:

    It is just amazing that these are all nature. I am speechless by the what can come out of nature and the landscape.

  41. chandan banerjee Says:

    sir we want more satelite imagery with lat,long ,for our stydes

  42. waht Says:

    You are really amazing, thank you

  43. ??? Says:

    the Library of Congress unveiled an exhibit of photos taken by the Landsat-7 satellite. Culled from over 400,000 pictures, this small set of 41 pictures (more added in 2003) represented

  44. sam Says:

    Great selection. Check out http://www.theabstractearth.co.uk/ for a range of similar satellite pictures, available as prints.

  45. Tostig Says:

    Dear Sirs,
    Thank you so much for publishing these photographs – they are quite wonderful.
    Love your paper.

41 Trackbacks For This Post

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    [...] from orbiting satellites. Chris Ingham Brooke from Environmental Graffiti has posted a set of the 30 Most Incredible Abstract Satellite Images of Earth. Below are a few of my favorites, but it is very much worth your while to check out the full post. [...]

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