Western Hemisphere 21,600 by 21,600 pixels (1km) (240 MB TIFF) !
Poor ol' modem users, they don't know what they're missin'. posted by tomplus2 at 2:53 PM on February 7, 2002
This is my favorite image: city lights at night. Interesting how the Sahara reads the same color as Greenland's glaciers. Also vividly shows the megalopolis of Boston-NYC-DC. posted by acridrabbit at 3:08 PM on February 7, 2002
pardonyou? i was thinking that, but it seems like the angle's off, like there's none in the eastern hemisphere. the moon?
i just realized in this font a lower case 'I' looks like an upside down exclamation point!
It's always so pretty when you can't see the people....*sigh* posted by Ufez Jones at 3:21 PM on February 7, 2002
I'm still waiting for it load up, but it sounds like it'll be great. posted by dong_resin at 3:28 PM on February 7, 2002
Completely breathtaking. Thanks for the link posted by jackiemcghee at 3:30 PM on February 7, 2002
I just noticed in this pic that you can see the line from Glasgow to Edinburgh as a constant track of light.
I understand that probably means more to me than most of you. posted by jackiemcghee at 3:36 PM on February 7, 2002
I understand, jackiemcghee -- it's cool (don't know why) to trace Interstate 35 (US highway) from San Antonio through Austin through Dallas through Oklahoma City...
Very, very cool pix. posted by davidmsc at 3:45 PM on February 7, 2002
Joy. Home. Fragile refuge in night.
Odd how you can't make out those nasty national boundaries. Maybe somehow they don't really exist? posted by fold_and_mutilate at 3:56 PM on February 7, 2002
Odd how you can't make out those nasty national boundaries. Maybe somehow they don't really exist?
They don't. It is purely a figment of our imagination. Funny how our ficticious lines on a map can create so many problems. posted by pedantic at 4:24 PM on February 7, 2002
Ah, but they do, FAM. Take a look at the shimmering web of India, giving way to the sparsely speckled Pakistan, and finally the entirely barren Afghanistan. Progress at work :/ posted by Ptrin at 4:26 PM on February 7, 2002
The Nile is my favourite feature of the night map. posted by iain at 4:32 PM on February 7, 2002
Feh- typical divisive NASA maps, with the "two hemisphere" view that only reinforces the East/West geopolitical divide. If they were really cool, they would have made this as a Dymaxion map... posted by hincandenza at 4:54 PM on February 7, 2002
Cheers for the Dymaxion map link, hincandenza. I'd never seen that before and it was a nice diversion while I continue to wait for that 240MB beast to download. posted by MUD at 6:02 PM on February 7, 2002
I have a poster on my wall that I bought in 1990 titled "The Earth - From Space". It looks just like those "Land Surface, Ocean Color, and Sea Ice" images. It was made by NASA using the same sort of satellite imagery.
Those specular highlights in the globe images are annoying. But, they give you access to the raw data, so you can make your own. That's pretty remarkable. High quality satellite mages like this used to cost a lot of money.
Also, this is the first time that I've been able to find video clips online in anything greater than 640x480 resolution. Full HDTV rez, wow! posted by Potsy at 6:08 PM on February 7, 2002
hincandenza, there's an East/West political divide, anymore? Read the papers once in a while, whydoncha. 1989-1991, if they're still in the closet.
Anyway, even better than the aged Dymaxion is the Peters Projection, which is "area accurate" -- although the distortions in this map are in other ways even greater than old Mercator, and thus unfamiliar. (That's another smart About.com article, by the way. They only get better.) All about map projections -- another good one is Robinson -- and here's a professional cartographer's view of doing maps based on seeing earth from space. posted by dhartung at 7:29 PM on February 7, 2002
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posted by UnReality at 1:15 PM on February 7, 2002