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Space Science

Most Detailed Image Of Earth Yet 295

Posted by Hemos from the lookin'-purty dept.
TomDM writes "BBC News has a story on how scientists created the most accurate and detailed image of our planet yet, composing the image from satellite data, and adjusting it for the correct colours. "
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Most Detailed Image Of Earth Yet More

Most Detailed Image Of Earth Yet

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  • Scientists where... (Score:5, Funny)

    by geekoid ( 135745 ) <dadinportland&yahoo,com> on Wednesday February 20, 2002 @07:48PM (#3040910) Homepage Journal
    ..suprised to find out that the Earth, is in fact, flat.

  • I've been working on this myself. (Score:4, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 20, 2002 @07:49PM (#3040919)
    I have been taking pictures using my Kodak Advantix camera of the ground in 4ftx3ft areas and collaging them into a large, detailed map of the Earth's surface.

    Because I am trying to keep this as up to date as possible, I reshoot any areas that change. I haven't gotten very far, mostly my yard and part of the driveway.

  • And yet... (Score:1, Offtopic)

    by zpengo ( 99887 )
    And yet, instead of showing the actual image, they decide to give us "A typical view of our planet" (probably because they had the clipart handy).

  • Where? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by buserror ( 115301 ) on Wednesday February 20, 2002 @07:51PM (#3040934)
    I wish we had access to that kind of data, as well as elevation data for the whole planet.

    Corelating both, we could have a planetwide flying simulator, or even submarine simulator.

    Then add the higher resolution satellite pictures to enrich the places where you have them, and we'd soon have a hugely interesting data set!

    I did a proto browser like that years ago, correlating the ghhs coastline data set and the etopo5 elevation map (at 1 degree resolution; nothing). And thats still the only vectorial data you can get covering the whole planet, for free.

    it's OUR planet anyway, why can't they release the data? it's not like the resolution is enought to have any military value anyway!
    • If you follow the links from MS's terrashare server, you can find a place to order the full survey from the geological survey people. The thing is, it's all flat, and black and white. Not very good for a flight sim type app.

    • Re:Where? (Score:4, Informative)

      by tap ( 18562 ) on Wednesday February 20, 2002 @08:05PM (#3041038) Homepage
      You have download for free a 30 second resolution digital elevation for the whole planet from the USGS. It's called GTOPO30 [usgs.gov] and it's been avialable since 1996.

      As to why more isn't avialable for free, it costs money to create data like this. One way or another, someone needs to pay for it. If taxes aren't enough to provide hi-res images of the entire world, then that leaves private enterprise.

    • Re:Where? (Score:1, Informative)

      by craw ( 6958 )
      Go to NOAA NGDC topographic/bathymetric web site [noaa.gov]. There is a bunch of data and images that you can download. There are even some software.

      In case you don't know, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Admininstration, National Geophysical Data Center.
    • Here here, I'm still using the gshhs 80Mb (~100m) data to plot stuff from my GPS.
      That gshhs dataset is pretty incredible, if you ever want to stress polygon clipping code, feel free to use it, europe, asia are ONE polygon, around 400.000 vertice :-)

      Screenshot is here, but might have been misencoded by the apple thing, sorry:
      tool [mac.com]

    • Re:Where? (Score:3, Informative)

      by adamp3 ( 555665 )
      All the data, seperated into hemispheres and at 1 pixel = 1 km resolution (21600x21600 pixel images) is freely available from NASA at:

      ftp://gloria2-f.gsfc.nasa.gov/pub/stockli/ [nasa.gov]

      The images are split into versions with or without shaded topography and bathymetry, there's an ice cap map, a landcover map, topography/bathymetry maps, a cloud layer, and the city lights image.

      They're in RAW format ("Open As.." in Photoshop).
      Be prepared to wait a while for them to open.

    • Movies, amd More (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Alien54 ( 180860 )
      The bigger flat pictures and movies, although the 400 meg tiff files are on another page:

      http://www.earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/Blue Marble/ [nasa.gov]

    • Actually almost all of the MODIS data used to produce this image is available for free, in its original raw format.

      I've ordered lots of data from the MISR instrument (which is similar to MODIS, and is on the same satellite), and basically you just pick the swaths you want and give them your email address. Later they send you email with an ftp site where you can download that swath. You can get as much as you want if you have the bandwidth. Be warned: these aren't JPEG images, they're raw HDF files, so you'll need to download some specialized tools or write some code to parse them.

      Order Click here to MODIS data [nasa.gov]

  • seems like a lot of trouble for nothing... (Score:3, Funny)

    by negativekarmanow tm ( 518080 ) on Wednesday February 20, 2002 @07:52PM (#3040942) Homepage Journal

    Wouldn't this [google.com] have been a lot easier?

  • Hey (Score:1, Offtopic)

    by NitsujTPU ( 19263 )
    They just ran apt-get to get it! Didn't they?

  • path radience (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward
    This is an image of what the ground looks like from the ground, not from space. Path radience effects the eye just like a camera. Not explained well in the article...
  • That is messed up. The have a link to the high res version of the "old view", but no links to the high res versions of the new-improved image. Does anyone have any links to a larger version?
  • Now, the picture is nice and all, but when can the average joe go for a vacation to the space station? Aren't they done yet. Come on, the travel industry desparately needs a new market :). Oh wait, that's that's a big suicide bomb waiting to happen.
  • Where can I get it in 2,048 by 1,536 resolution??
  • And here is the story where they got all the idea for their story from http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=02/02/08/143217 &mode=thread

  • Links to actual pictures (Score:5, Informative)

    by willybur ( 217434 ) on Wednesday February 20, 2002 @07:55PM (#3040962) Homepage
    Look at the NASA MODIS [nasa.gov] site here [nasa.gov] if you want to actually see the pictures...

  • High Res Links (Score:5, Informative)

    by mr_gerbik ( 122036 ) on Wednesday February 20, 2002 @07:56PM (#3040971)
    Nasa has some High Res versions here. [nasa.gov]

    Yes.. you too can download a 410MB TIFF of the earth ;)

    • thas just for one hemisphere, its another 210 megs for the other hemisphere.
    • Large File Access The file you have selected is approximately 410.41 MB. At this time we are providing access to these files on a restricted basis. If you would like access to this file (#11662), please contact Tara Hess, eobweb@eob.gsfc.nasa.gov I guess we don't need to /. NASA
    • Nuts. Looks like they responded pretty quickly to the hordes of nerds all trying to grab 400MB for their own viewing pleasure.

      Large File Access

      The file you have selected is approximately 410.41 MB. At this time we are providing access to these files on a restricted basis. If you would like access to this file (#11662), please contact Tara Hess, eobweb@eob.gsfc.nasa.gov

      Time to post the mirrors? Or is it time to collectively spam poor Tara?

  • Africa (Score:3, Funny)

    by c++ ( 25427 ) on Wednesday February 20, 2002 @07:57PM (#3040980)
    So that's why Africa is called the dark continent...

  • If you want wallpaper... (Score:4, Informative)

    by EricKrout.com ( 559698 ) on Wednesday February 20, 2002 @07:57PM (#3040981) Homepage
    If you want wallpaper or a large-scale version of these images, there's one that's fairly recent at http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/image/0011/earthl ights2_dmsp_big.jpg [nasa.gov].

    It's not the new uber-detailed version, but anything's better than the 2" by 2" clippings the BBC has accompanying the article. I doubt you'll tell the difference.

    Enjoy! I currently have this as my wallpaper and think it's pretty nifty.

    EricKrout.com :: I'm 90% Stardust! [erickrout.com]
  • This is what the world really looks like. Be careful, it will blow your mind.

    http://www.petersmap.com/page2.html

    "..the cropping technique results in a map showing the equator about 60% of the way down the map, diminishing the size and importance of the developing countries.

    This was convenient, psychologically and practically, through the eras of colonial domination when most of the world powers were European. It suited them to maintain an image of the world with Europe at the center and looking much larger than it really was. "

  • I want one. (Score:3, Interesting)

    by red5 ( 51324 ) <gired5@gm a i l.com> on Wednesday February 20, 2002 @07:58PM (#3040983) Homepage Journal
    I want a poster for my wall.
    That would be rad.
    Even better if they print it with light sensitve ink.
    So when I turn out the lights I get the night version.

  • That has got to be... (Score:3, Funny)

    by Zildy ( 32593 ) on Wednesday February 20, 2002 @07:58PM (#3040984)
    ...the holy grail of Risk boards.
  • It's an obvious fake. Look at it! There are no lines to show you where the states are!

  • Blue Marble... (Score:2, Redundant)

    by tcyun ( 80828 )
    I believe that this all stems from work done by NASA's [nasa.gov]
    Blue Marble project.

    If you go to the site, they have some great, high-resolution images of the earth during the day, night, by hemisphere, etc. A great source for desktops or just browsing for fun.
  • I believe this is the same project that was reported February 8th as "Blue Marble" [slashdot.org].

  • works great in xplanet (Score:4, Informative)

    by Alan ( 347 ) <arcterex@NOspAm.ufies.org> on Wednesday February 20, 2002 @08:04PM (#3041027) Homepage
    Anyone who wants to use this for xplanet [sf.net] (a very cool globe program for *nix) can. There's a nice 2400x1200 version floating around somewhere, that combined with Hans Ecke [hans.ecke.ws]'s scripts, will create just awsome images for your desktop [ufies.org].
  • This whole thing smells like PR for NASA so they can get an adequate budget. Using IR cameras to measure global warming, measuring the changes in the icecaps, that makes sense. But a big dorm-room poster? This is right up there with putting a camera on the Mars rover. Neat, but what did it accomplish?

    What bugs me is that the Earth is made to look prettier than it is. Where are the cities? If you didn't know better, you'd think the planet's one big grassy plain with a desert in the middle. It's clear they made cosmetic touch-ups, right down to the cloud photos they chose to make the photo look more "typical."

    And while it's great to see the planet without any clouds, if by "clouds" you mean "smog and pollution," then you might as well be editing out cities. You just don't end up with a meaningful view of the planet if you leave out how we've changed it.

    This doesn't appear to be a useful, or even honest, project. It's more of a publicity stunt.
  • So, now we slashdot the earth????
  • Last one out, turn off the light

    Hmm, joke aside, this sentence sends a thrill down my spine, thinking of the day when human kind has screwed the planet up so badly that we have to move on.

    I don't know about you, but last time I checked, Earth is still the best place to live. So let's take care of our home, while we still can.

  • Japan (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Sivar ( 316343 )
    Japan is lit mor brightly than Las Vegas, or anywhere else in the word for that matter. Talk about population density.
  • you'll see me having breakf...

    Wait a minute..
  • what Pamela Andersons navel looks like from orbit
  • The article is pretty light on how they processed the data. Blue Marble [nasa.gov] goes into the detail a bit more (and has a link to tech references, but it seems to be dead). It's a 1 km resolution image, and the funkiness is not the resolution, but the colour balancing and whatnot. You try taking a panorama with your camera and try getting the colours to match across photos for even just a few pictures.

    Xix.

  • That's the caption on the last image on the story, a composite of the earth at night. I've always been a little creeped out by those images of a lighted-up Earth skeleton; I mean, it's neat to see the Megalopoleis of the world, and the way that all these tiny, weak lights come together to make brighter lights, visible from space.

    But it's also incredibly apocalyptic, to me.

    If my little 75-watt porch light contributes to light pollution enough to be visible from space, it really makes tangible the effect of the other kinds of pollution that that light must create. A tiny bit of coal here, a puff of gas there; without my (or anyone else's) thinking about it, it turns into something that's fucking visible from space.

    So when the caption is "Last one out, turn off the light", all that does is drive home for me how even the tiniest decisions I make -- leaving the porch light on all night so robbers can't steal my luxuries -- affect the whole world.

    Blimey, we're all killing eachother: cheerio, last one out, be a dear, turn off the light, eh?

  • ...the puff of smoke coming up from the servers at NASA.

    --jw

  • Color Error... (Score:3, Funny)

    by Embedded Geek ( 532893 ) on Wednesday February 20, 2002 @08:18PM (#3041095) Homepage
    ...every square kilometre of the globe was covered... the final map represents the Earth's actual tint and hue.

    For the record, if I'd known NASA was working on this, I would've reseeded my lawn. I didn't think anyone but the neighbors would notice the dead patches. My apologies...

    • the final map represents the Earth's actual tint and hue.

      I thought the whole thing was too dark. Then I turned up my monitor. Now it's even more actual.

  • I submitted these pictures and the official NASA site some time ago, check it out [slashdot.org]. Still awesome pics...
  • this is all a marvel of modern technology and all, but who really cares what hue of blue the ocean is at a specific point? maybe biologists or meteorologists, but there are more useful things other than color that they use. so, while neat, I fail to see the practicality in this.

  • So there's a rectangular version of the "most accurate map" on the BBC site...

    But --- what's this ?

    Oh my god, I don't exist!

    They appear to have forgotton New Zealand [enzed.com]...

    (also, amazingly, someone has filled in the ocean between Alaska and Russia... East meets west!)

  • Hm. (Score:3, Funny)

    by Eric Seppanen ( 79060 ) on Wednesday February 20, 2002 @08:44PM (#3041216)
    To: maint
    From: eng
    Subj: 1055CM STILL out of ink

    Hey guys, the 36-inch color inkjet printer still seems to be out of ink. I thought you guys were going to come out and replace the cartridge two hours ago.

  • If you have dual monitors, have I got a treat for you...

    I have a picture of the earth at night, with all the lights on [of course, it had to be time rendered, as the whole earth is not lit at the exact same time]. You can download it for free from here [conesus.com], and by the way, this is the same image at the bottom of the article, but it got my attention because it's my background right now [21" + 17" and still looks great]

  • Want to see a living example of the difference between North and South Korea? Find South Korea on the nighttime map from NASA. Notice how it's separated from China by a dark gap? That gap is North Korea.
  • A proper background for my 500-display infinite reality supercomputer!
  • go to This web site [nasa.gov] [http://visibleearth.nasa.gov/]. They make excellent desktop pictures! BlackGriffen Basking in the glow of the karma whoring light... :D
  • Would be cool if someone would use these images to generate Earth 1.0 a la Snowcrash, for those who haven't read Snowcrash, Earth 1.0 was a utility that gave live feeds from satellites, you could see the clowds all over earth but also you could zoom in very deep and see people move around.

    The last part is not feasable ofcourse because the static earth-images would be sitting on your drive, eating up a lot of space. But lower detail satellite images from the internet could be used to dynamically generate the cloud surface on top of the high detail images so zooming would be possible and it would almost be like Earth 1.0

    I once saw a simular app in java but the graphics were quite bad.
  • Am I the only person that thinks things like this make cool posters? Any idea if you can buy one? Where?
  • For anyone who is in the know and has downloaded the high resolution pictures, can you explain what those glowing blue patches you see by the coasts are? They're especially prominent in the one with clouds, but there's a pretty bright one off the coast of Cuba and Florida too in the loudless one.

    Considering this is supposed to be true color, I'm really curious, since I've never seen anything like these in normal pictures of the Earth from space. In the cloudy one it almost looks like someone spilled radioactive waste all over South America and Europe or something....
  • Is this the way the earth would look in spring time for all regions, or in the wet time for all reagions, or in the summer for all regions, or when there is the most photosynthesis for all regions? Remember it's summer south of the equater when it is winter north of the equator. In central brazil it's the rainy season but in the north east it's the dry season. So what does it mean?

    Well, it's cool anyway.

  • full scale (Score:4, Funny)

    by passion ( 84900 ) on Wednesday February 20, 2002 @11:19PM (#3041892)

    I have a map of the United States. It's full scale. It says on the side: "one inch equals one inch." Last Summer I folded it.

    -- Steven Wright


  • "I can see my house from here!"

    Well, somebody had to say it.

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