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One regular dose of Earth from above
New Overviews are posted regularly on Instagram — follow @dailyoverview to see them as soon as they go up.
Cape Canaveral
28.608151°,-80.605671° - Maxar
Rocket launch pads are seen here in Cape Canaveral, Florida, USA. This region — called the “Space Coast” — is well known as the site of both the Kennedy Space Center and the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. All of the NASA-launched crewed spaceflights have departed from one of these two bases, beginning with Project Mercury in 1961.
Siuslaw National Forest
44.333333°,-123.916667° - Airbus
The Siuslaw National Forest encompasses more than 630,000 acres (2,500 square km) along the central coast of Oregon, USA. It is made up of a variety of ecosystems — from coastal forests to sand dunes — and contains numerous aquatic habitats along its seashore, its 1,200 miles (1,900 km) of rivers and streams, and its 30 lakes. The national forest also contains Marys Peak, the highest point in the Oregon Coast Range at 4,097 feet (1,249 m).
Thilafushi
4.183333°,73.433333° - Maxar
Thilafushi is an artificial island built from reclaimed land that receives waste generated in the Maldives. It is estimated that at least 330 tonnes of waste is brought to Thilafushi every day, most of which comes from Malé, the nation’s capital city. Because the waste is used to continue the land reclamation process and increase the size of the island, the area of Thilafushi is growing about 1 square meter (11 square feet) per day.
Columbia Glacier
61.219722°,-146.895278° - ESA - European Space Agency
The Columbia Glacier in southeastern Alaska is one of the most rapidly receding ice floes in the world. Since the 1980s, the glacier has lost more than half its total volume, which as led to a retreat of the ice more than 12 miles (19 kilometers) to the north. By 2008, the glacier had retreated back to the top of the surrounding inlet and split into separate glaciers that have continued to calve (break off at the end) on various fronts since.
Choji-dong
37.311251°,126.773632° - Maxar
Choji-dong is a neighborhood of roughly 55,000 people in the city of Ansan, South Korea. The Korean government has intensively driven development of Ansan, particularly in this area, with an emphasis on manufacturing. The striking blue color shown here results from the use of aluminum roofing, which is used for its low cost and longevity.
Colorado Bagua Arrangement
38.506944°,-102.151694° - Maxar
A crop-formed Bagua arrangement is seen here in Kiowa County, Colorado, USA. An important symbol in Taoist cosmology, the Bagua consists of a yin-yang surrounded by eight sets of three-line patterns. This particular arrangement, known as Fu Xi or “Earlier Heaven,” represents the ancient Chinese understanding of the universe — yin and yang depict heaven and earth, and the eight surrounding diagrams symbolize sky, earth, thunder, wind, water, fire, mountain and lake.
Freighter at Port of Long Beach
33.754185°,-118.216458° - The Drone Booth
A freighter full of containerized cargo waits outside the Port of Long Beach in California, USA. With an annual container volume of 8.1 million twenty-foot equivalent units, it is the second-busiest container port in the nation, after the neighboring Port of Los Angeles. The port is a major gateway for US-Asian trade, with top imports from China, Vietnam, South Korea and Japan consisting of crude oil, electronics, plastics, furniture and clothing.
Kent Lorry Park
51.342222°,1.346111° - William Edwards/AFP/Getty Images
Hundreds of semi-trailer trucks line up on the tarmac of Manston Airport in Kent, southeastern England. The closed airport has been used as a “lorry park” since Sunday, when France announced a travel ban from the United Kingdom in response to the identification of a new COVID-19 strain in England. The border was reopened yesterday morning to essential travelers who test negative for COVID-19, slowly alleviating a backup of several thousand cargo trucks. This morning, after four and a half years of Brexit negotiations, the European Union and the UK finalized terms on a free trade deal, narrowly avoiding a no-deal scenario that would have begun January 1st.
Saturn-Jupiter Conjunction
0.000000°,0.000000° - Planet
While we normally focus on satellite imagery of Earth, today we turn our cameras in the other direction to share this once-in-our-lifetime view. A Planet SkySat captured this shot of the Jupiter and Saturn conjunction on December 21st, when the two planets made their closest night sky pass in nearly 800 years. Although they are really 456 million miles (734 million km) apart, during this vibrant conjunction — called the “Christmas Star” — they appeared so close that both could be covered by a pinkie finger at arm’s length.
Deir ez-Zor
35.333333°,40.150000° - Maxar
This Overview shows Deir ez-Zor, the largest city in eastern Syria, before (2012) and during (2018) the Syrian Civil War. Extended periods of drought in the late 2000s and early 2010s forced Syrian farmers and others dependent on the agriculture industry into cities like Deir ez-Zor, exacerbating existing political unrest. This tension is believed to be a major factor in setting off the Syrian Civil War, the ultimate cause of the world’s largest refugee crisis, with over 5 million refugees fleeing to neighboring countries, Africa, and Europe to escape the conflict.
New Mexico Potash Ponds
32.510823°,-103.955313° - Maxar
Evaporation ponds are seen at the Intrepid Potash Mines near Carlsbad, New Mexico, USA. These mines produce muriate of potash and sulfate of potash magnesium, two mineral salts used in fertilizer. Salt is dried in these massive solar ponds after being pumped to the surface from underground brines. Water in the ponds is dyed with vibrant colors to reduce the time it takes for potash to crystallize — darker water absorbs more sunlight, causing it to evaporate more quickly.
West Java Aquaculture
-6.931700°,107.429800° - Maxar
Aquaculture operations are seen along much of the shoreline of the Saguling Dam Reservoir in West Java, Indonesia. Located at the headwater of the Citarum River, the reservoir’s primary purpose is hydroelectric power generation, but it also provides water for net-cage fish farming and rice paddy irrigation. The Citarum River is listed as one of the most polluted rivers in the world, primarily due to contamination from the Indonesian textile industry.
Bahía Blanca
-38.716667°,-62.266667° - Maxar
Bahía Blanca is a city in the Buenos Aires province of Argentina, home to more than 300,000 people. Its name, which translates to “White Bay,” derives from the color of the salt that builds up along its Atlantic coastline. Bahía Blanca has the typical features of a city founded by the Spanish and their descendants — a strict grid pattern with main buildings surrounding rectangular courtyards.
Wind Farm Turbine Factory
34.711753°,-92.184710° - Maxar
Blades for wind turbines are seen here, grouped together at a manufacturing facility in Little Rock, Arkansas, USA. Individual blades are transported from this facility to wind farms on top of trucks and then assembled on-site. For a sense of scale, the longest blades here are 350 feet (107 meters) long, or 1.3 times the length of a New York City block.
Koolan Island
-16.125278°,123.738333° - Maxar
Koolan Island is located off the Kimberley Coast of Western Australia, about 80 miles (130 km) north of Derby. The 6,375-acre (2,580-hectare) island is rich in high-grade iron ore and has been open-pit mined since 1963. In 1994 — after 68 million tonnes of ore had been extracted — the mine was temporarily closed and intentionally flooded with seawater, allowing a marine ecosystem to develop within the bounds of the pit. Mining recommenced in 2007 and continues today.
Pondera County, Montana
48.306111°,-112.251111° - Maxar
An extensive patchwork of farmland is seen here in Pondera County, Montana, USA. Located on the eastern edge of the Rocky Mountains less than 50 miles (80 km) south of Canada, the county averages fewer than 4 people per square mile. In the bottom left corner of this Overview is the town of Valier — population 509 — where agriculture and cattle ranching are the main industries.
Suez Canal
30.565472°,31.886110° - Maxar
Cargo ships pass through the Suez Canal in Egypt. Officially opened in 1869 as a way to connect the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea, the 120-mile long (193 km) channel has more than 18,000 ships pass through its waterways each year. In 2014, the Egyptian government began a construction project to expand and widen the Ballah Bypass, in order to shorten the transit time through the canal. This expansion nearly doubled the capacity of the canal, from 49 to 97 ships per day.
Olympic Dam Mine
-30.440000°,136.873056° - Maxar
The Olympic Dam Mine in South Australia contains the largest known deposit of uranium in the world and is the country’s largest producer of uranium oxide, or “yellowcake.” Mining uranium is the first step in the process of nuclear power generation. Before it can be fabricated into a fuel, the uranium must be enriched through the process of isotope separation.
Panlong Ancient Road
37.635771°,75.509934° - Maxar
This Overview shows a small section of the “Panlong Ancient Road” in southwestern Xinjiang, China. Located near the Chinese border with Tajikistan, this route snakes for 47 miles (75 km) through the Pamir Mountains, rising 13,450 feet (4,100 meters) above sea level. Some reports claim it has more than 600 hairpin turns.
Lençóis Maranhenses National Park
-2.533333°,-43.116667° - Airbus
Lençóis Maranhenses National Park is a 380,000-acre (155,000 hectare) protected area in northeastern Brazil. The park’s interior contains miles of rolling sand dunes, the valleys of which fill with freshwater lagoons during the rainy season and are prevented from draining by impermeable rock beneath. Lençóis Maranhenses has 43 miles (70 km) of Atlantic coastline and is home to a range of species, including four that are endangered — the scarlet ibis, the neotropical otter, the oncilla and the West Indian manatee.
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