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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.
Robben Island
-33.806734°,18.366222° - Maxar
Robben Island is located seven kilometers off the coast of Cape Town, South Africa. Notoriously known as the prison for enemies of the government during the Apartheid era (1948 - early 1990’s), the island had been a destination for political prisoners as far back as the 17th century. For three centuries, this place was a symbol of repression and separateness. I want to make it clear that it is no coincidence that this Overview is being posted today. At this moment in history, Robben Island serves as a symbol of hope, a reminder that change for the better is both possible and sometimes difficult to recognize in the moment. This landmass of five-square kilometers hasn’t transformed too much since 1948, but we have. Since the end of apartheid, and to this day, the island has functioned as a living museum. - I have always thought one of the most powerful aspects of this project is that it had the ability to stay above the political fray. Usually, issues that divide us on the ground are not visible from outer space and therefore, our posts could offer a respite from that noise. However, with the current anger, grieving, and tension in my home country, I believe we are facing problems that go far beyond politics at this point. They are struggles for the most vital of human rights. Staying silent in this moment would go against everything this project hopes to accomplish. The astronauts who were lucky enough to see our planet from a great distance were reminded that we’re all in this together. Let’s start acting like it.
Praia Grande
-24.006111°,-46.402778° - Maxar
Waves of the Atlantic Ocean roll into the coast of Praia Grande, Brazil. Located in the state of São Paulo, the municipality is known for its beaches. Two of the most popular areas - Praia Ocian and Praia Aviação - are visible in this Overview.
Brasilia
-15.793888°,-47.882777° - Maxar
This Overview captures the urban plan of Brasilia, Brazil. The city was founded on April 21, 1960, in order to move the capital from Rio de Janeiro to a more central location within Brazil. The design — resembling an airplane from above — was developed by Lúcio Costa and prominently features the modernist buildings of the celebrated architect Oscar Niemeyer at its center.
Nea Kameni
36.400000°,25.400000° - Maxar
Nea Kameni is an uninhabited Greek island, located in the Aegean Sea and within the flooded Santorini caldera. Formed over the last two thousand years through repeated volcanic eruptions, the barren island is visited daily by tourist boats throughout the summer. The last small eruption occurred in 1950.
Lamberts Point Coal Railyard
36.875250°,-76.320250° - Nearmap
Train cars filled with coal are stationed in Norfolk, Virginia. Operated by the Norfolk Southern corporation, Lamberts Point Pier 6 is the largest coal-loading station in the Northern Hemisphere and serves as the temporary depot for the company’s fleet of 23,000 coal cars. As of this month, the United States is on track to produce more electricity from renewable power than from coal this year for the first time on record.
Tanjung Perak
-7.184000°,112.721167° - Maxar
This Overview captures cargo ships and tankers moving through Tanjung Perak, the main port in Surabaya, Indonesia. Recent expansion and dredging here has deepened the waters to 16 meters (52.5 feet) and enabled a larger generation of containers ships to pass through safely. The facility’s principal exports are sugar, tobacco, and coffee.
Los Angeles International Airport (LAX)
33.942500°,-118.408056° - Nearmap
Los Angeles International Airport, commonly referred to as LAX, handled more than 88 million passengers in 2019. That staggering total made it the third busiest airport in the world last year. LAX serves as a hub for more passenger airlines than any other airport in the United States and is also the only airport to rank among the top five U.S. airports for both passenger and cargo traffic.
Stockholm
59.329444°,18.068611° - Maxar
Stockholm is the capital and largest city in Sweden with a population of 1.6 million people in its urban area. The city is spread across fourteen islands and is known as one of the world’s cleanest cities. This recognition is primarily based on the Stockholm's significant focus on environmental issues in its budget, its thoughtful urban planning, and its decision to be fossil fuel free by the year 2050.
Brøndby Haveby
55.637185°,12.399623° - Maxar
Brøndby Haveby is a residential community located just outside Copenhagen, Denmark. Houses with large front yards are centered around cul-de-sacs, providing urban dwellers the opportunity to live outside the city and grow small subsistence or hobby crops during the summer months.
Chilean Coast Range
-24.737494°,-70.565057° - Maxar Technologies
The Chilean Coast Range is a mountainous stretch that runs along the Pacific Ocean in Chile. It extends 1,900 miles (3,100 km) from north to south, and this Overview captures a section near the city of Antofagasta. The highest point in the Chilean Coast Range is Cerro Vicuña Mackenna, which peaks at 10,217 feet (3,114 m).
Central Park
40.782222°,-73.965278° - Maxar
Central Park in New York City spans 843 acres — or 6% of the borough of Manhattan. One of the most influential innovations in the park's design was its "separate circulation" systems for pedestrians, horseback riders, and automobiles. This concealed "crosstown" commercial traffic in sunken roadways (known as "transverses" today), and densely planted shrub belts in order to maintain a rustic ambiance.
Guelb Moghrein Mine
19.746792°,-14.448051° - Maxar
Two circular tailings ponds can be seen at the Guelb Moghrein Mine in Akjoujt, Mauritania. Tailings ponds are dam systems engineered to hold the waste and byproducts of mining operations. In 2015, the Guelb Moghrein Mine produced 45,001 tons of copper and 64,007 ounces of gold.
Madrid
40.383333°,-3.716667° - Maxar
Madrid is the capital and most populous city of Spain, with nearly 6.8 million people living in its metropolitan area. The city has some modern architecture, but it has preserved the look and feel of many of its historic neighborhoods and streets – a few of which date back to medieval times. This weekend, residents began walking outside for the first time in several weeks as Spain’s coronavirus lockdown – one of the toughest in Europe – was eased slightly.
Åland Islands
60.155955°,20.299564° - Planet
The Åland Islands are an archipelago located in the Baltic Sea of Finland. The chain comprises 300 habitable islands, 80 of which are inhabited, and roughly 6,200 skerries and desolate rocks. The province is autonomous, demilitarized and the smallest region of Finland, constituting 0.51% of its land area — 610 square miles (1,580 square km) — and 0.54% of its population, with nearly 30,000 residents.
Delray Beach
26.475548°,-80.156470° - Maxar
This Overview shows residential development in Delray Beach, Florida. Because many cities in the state contain master-planned communities, often built on top of waterways in the latter half of the twentieth century, there are a number of intricate designs that are visible from above. According to the 2010 Census, 20.4% of the city’s homes were vacant.
Port of Los Angeles Ships
33.727148°,-118.154945° - Maxar
Oil tankers, cargo ships, and cruise liners are moored at the Port of Los Angeles in California. The facility is still open despite the COVID-19 pandemic, but is operating at about 80% of normal traffic and is sheltering ships normally at sea. Reports from this week show that dozens of additional oil tankers have anchored outside the port along the California coast outside the with nowhere to offload their product. In March of 2020, 449,568 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) of containerized cargo moved through the port, down from 650,977 TEUs in March 2019.
Athens
37.990712°,23.746807° - Costas Spathis
Check out this incredible drone photo of Athens, Greece. As the capital and largest city in the country, it’s metropolitan area is home to 3.7 million residents. This shot captures the grid plan of the Gyzi area.
Pinal Airpark
32.505891°,-111.330164° - Maxar
Pinal Airpark is located in Marana, Arizona. Historically, the facility has been used as a boneyard for hundreds of commercial aircraft because the area's dry, desert climate reduces corrosion of the planes’ metal. However in recent weeks, Pinal has also stored more than a dozen more planes that have been grounded by airlines due to extreme reduction of flights during the Coronavirus pandemic.
Euphrates River Farms
34.826110°,40.623241° - Maxar
Agricultural villages surround the Euphrates River in the Abu Kamal District of Syria. This area is part of the “Fertile Crescent” — a large region spanning parts of present-day Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Palestine, Jordan and Egypt — where settled farming first emerged more than 10,000 years ago. In addition to plants like figs, peas, lentils and chickpeas, this region also domesticated animals including cattle, sheep, goats, pigs, cats and geese. This image was featured in our story, "Eating Away at Earth."Read the full story →
Solar Pandas
39.973222°,113.484361° - Maxar Technologies
Two pandas are formed by solar panels at the Panda Green Energy power plant in Datong, Shanxi Province, northern China. Built in cooperation with the United Nations Development Program, this solar farm covers roughly 1,500 acres and includes an education center that teaches children about sustainable and renewable energy.
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