Of all the Earth sciences, geology has the strongest tradition of visual communication. It’s probably because mapping is fundamental to the field, and geologists have 200 years of practice at it. As a result, they tend to create well designed imagery. Two exemplary techniques geologists use: they almost always include a scale, and they often […]
We recently received this question from Jeff, a reader in Colorado: We’ve been having lots of hazy days in Colorado. I’m sure it’s common over most of the U.S., Alaska, Canada, and Greenland. Most likely, it’s also over Europe. I saw your images of fires burning in Russia. Could it be that a lot of […]
At Earth Observatory, we try to bring you views of as many natural events as we can fit into a day. Some days, the satellites don’t have a good view. And other days, we have to leave the office because of an earthquake… While most of the U.S. East Coast is talking about the […]
Ever since we posted an image last week of a coccolithophore plankton bloom, I have been trading notes with Peter Eick, an Earth Observatory reader and seismic surveyor working in the Barents Sea. “I look at your site every morning,” he wrote. “I found today kind of neat since I am in your picture and saw the […]
“… complex datasets require complex visualizations. In general though, simpler is usually the best way to go in the sense that you should make it as easy as possible for a reader to understand what’s going on. You’re the storyteller, so it’s your job to tell them what’s interesting.” —Nathan Yau, author of Visualize This: […]
Post composed by Jesse Allen, Earth Observatory data visualizer One thing we occasionally hear from readers is “Why don’t you have images of…?” We actually get some really fantastic ideas just that way. For instance, just a few weeks ago, we got a request for satellite imagery of the slide at Medvezhiy Glacier in Tajikistan courtesy of […]
Every visualization blog on the planet has already posted one or two of these, but they’re awesome, so here is what Washington, DC looks like via Tweets (blue) and photos posted to Flickr (orange). White areas have both tweets and photos. Unsurprisingly, tourist areas are dominated by photos, residential areas by tweets. More here: See […]
We had fun with last month’s “Where on Earth” mystery, so we thought we’d throw a new image out for your guessing pleasure. A few hints… + German U-boats sank a tug nearby in 1918… + The ponds in the image were formed by retreating glaciers… + The main waterway in the image is […]
On July 29, the Earth Observatory posted an image (above) from the MISR Mystery Image contest. How did you do? Did you guess South Africa? The image is rotated so that north is in the lower right. Visible as a cement-colored grid at this distance, Cape Town sits at the head of the U-shaped bay, […]
