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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.
Yuanyang Rice Terraces
23.159391°,102.753863° - Vantor
Rice paddies cover the mountainsides of Yuanyang County, China. Constructed in “steps” by the Hani people for the last 1300 years, the slope of the terraces varies from 15 to 75 degrees with some having as many as 3,000 steps! The stunning colors that you see here are indeed real and result from the presence of water and certain plants within the terraces.
Tagebau Hambach Surface Mine
50.907783°,6.523415° - Vantor
This Overview captures bucket-wheel excavators at the Tagebau Hambach open-pit mine in Niederzier and Elsdorf, Germany. These massive machines (up to 315 feet tall and 730 feet long) continuously scoop materials from the surface in order to extract lignite. Lignite, often referred to as “brown coal,” is a soft combustible sedimentary rock that is formed from naturally compressed peat and is used as a fuel for steam-electric power generation.
Baltic Algae Bloom
55.693089°,18.730060° - NASA
A massive bloom of cyanobacteria is seen in the Baltic Sea. In August 2015, a bloom spanning more than 100 square kilometers covered these waters. Cyanobacteria are a type of marine bacteria that capture and store solar energy through photosynthesis. While some are toxic to humans and animals, large blooms can cause an oxygen-depleted dead zone where other organisms cannot survive.
Daly City, California
37.686892°,-122.468020° - Nearmap
Skyline Boulevard (officially State Route 35) runs through a residential neighborhood in the Westlake District of Daly City, California. Located just south of San Francisco, Westlake is one of the first post-World War II suburbs in the United States. Its endless rows of uniform homes were the inspiration for Malvina Reynolds' 1962 folk song, "Little Boxes" — which singer Pete Seeger turned into the anti-conformity anthem of its era.
Chicago Midway International Airport (MDW)
41.786775°,-87.752188° - Vantor
Chicago Midway International Airport is a major commercial airport on the southwest side of Chicago, Illinois. It was the city's primary airport from the time it opened in 1927 until 1955, when O'Hare International Airport was opened roughly 20 miles (32 km) to its north. Located on one square mile (2.59 sq. km), Midway remains the second-busiest airport in the state of Illinois, having served 22 million passengers in 2018.
Salt Lake City, Utah
40.776783°,-112.060569° - Nearmap
Salt Lake City is the capital and most populous municipality in the state of Utah, with about 1.2 million residents in its metropolitan area. It was founded in 1847 by followers of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, who sought to escape persecution they experienced living in the east. As shown in this Overview, the city has a distinct north-south east-west grid system, which was laid out by church leader Brigham Young using what was called the "Plat of Zion" or the "Mormon Grid."
Mir Mine
62.529461°,113.993557° - Vantor
The Mir Mine is an inactive, open-pit diamond mine located in Mirny, Eastern Siberia, Russia. The mine is 1,722 feet (525 m) deep and has a diameter of 3,900 feet (1,200 m), making it one of the largest excavated holes in the world. Active for 44 years, the mine had an output of 10 million carats of diamond per year during peak production in the 1960s.
Reggane Rock Formations
25.017389°,-3.050361° - Vantor
This Overview shows colorful rock formations in the Sahara Desert, west of the town of Reggane, Algeria. The climate in this region is torrid and almost rainless, with an average annual rainfall of less than 0.4 inches (10 mm). In the summer, daytime temperatures are known to consistently reach 122°F (50°C), earning this area its nickname — the “triangle of fire.”
Øresund Bridge
55.570628°,12.848637° - Vantor
Stretching nearly 5 miles, the Øresund Bridge is the longest combined road and rail bridge in Europe. The bridge, which then becomes a tunnel, joins together two metropolitan areas — the Danish capital city of Copenhagen and the Swedish city of Malmö. The bridge itself has a mass of 82,000 tonnes and supports two railway tracks and four road lanes.
Louvre Pyramid
48.858951°,2.277020° - Geomni Maps
The Louvre Pyramid in Paris, France, was designed by Chinese-American architect I.M. Pei, who passed away yesterday at the age of 102. The structure, which consists exclusively of glass segments and metal poles, reaches a height of 71 feet (21.6 m) and has a square base with 112-foot-long (34 m) sides. While the pyramid is often recognized as Pei’s most famous design, his firm’s other works include the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio, and the Museum of Islamic Art in Doha, Qatar.
Hyundai Car Factory
32.281981°,-86.328442° - Nearmap
Cars are parked next to the Hyundai production facility in Montgomery, Alabama, USA. The plant has a capacity of 300,000 automobiles and also contains the production facility for their engines. In 2015, 17.5 million cars and light trucks were sold in the United States, raising the total number of registered vehicles in the country to roughly 253 million.
Manzhouli
49.491810°,117.280617° - Vantor
Manzhouli is a sub-prefectural city in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region of China. Located on the border with Russia, it is a major land port of entry and has experienced a boom in recent years as a center of Sino-Russian trade. Since China restricted commercial logging two decades ago, hundreds of factories have opened in Manzhouli to take advantage of lumber from Russia — demand for which is depleting many of Russia's forests.
Baton Rouge Refinery
30.485015°,-91.169420° - Nearmap
A residential neighborhood sits adjacent to a large oil refinery in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Owned by ExxonMobil, this facility is the fourth largest of its kind in the United States and the 12th largest in the world, with an input capacity of more than 502,000 barrels per day. This refinery is one of many industrial plants along the Mississippi River between Baton Rouge and New Orleans, an 85-mile stretch known as "Cancer Alley" because of the abundance of cancer cases that have occurred there.
Sunset District, San Francisco
37.750034°,-122.519085° - Vantor
This Overview captures the Sunset District — the largest and most populous neighborhood in San Francisco, California. Bordered by Golden Gate Park on its northern side, the district is home to more than 85,000 people. Sunset is often referred to as “The Avenues” because it is spanned by numbered north-south thoroughfares.
Rottnest Island Yacht
-31.994995°,115.560582° - Nearmap
A yacht cruises around Rottnest Island, located off the coast of Perth, Western Australia. The dark blotches seen in the water are parts of the Kingston Reef — one of five Marine Sanctuary Zones surrounding the island. These zones form a habitat for many species of fish and crustaceans, bottlenose dolphins, blue whales, Australian sea lions, New Zealand fur seals, and migrating humpbacks.
Omaha Beach
49.368889°,-0.868611° - Vantor
Omaha Beach was one of five key targets in the Allied invasion of Normandy, France, during World War II. Today marks the 75th anniversary of this operation — now known as “D-Day" — which began the liberation of Nazi-occupied France. With its high cliffs, the 5-mile (8 km) stretch of Omaha Beach had heavier casualties than any of the other four targets -- Utah, Gold, Juno, and Sword.
Egyptian Agricultural Development
30.122943°,31.133676° - Vantor
Agricultural development encircles the towns of Ausim and Shinbari in the Cairo Governorate of Egypt. The towns are located within the fertile area surrounding the Nile River, the country’s main source of water because it has no effective rainfall. The roughly 55 billion cubic meters of water that are used from the river each year represents more than three quarters of the country’s resources for usable water.
Elliott Bay Marina
47.628735°,-122.387261° - Nearmap
Boats and buoys are moored at Elliott Bay Marina, a private marina in Seattle, Washington. Located in the city’s Magnolia neighborhood, it has 1,250 slips ranging in size from 32 to 63 feet (9.75 to 19.2 meters) and 10 miles (16 km) of docks.
Staten Island Boat Graveyard
40.556107°,-74.216520° - Nearmap
The Staten Island Boat Graveyard is a marine scrapyard located in Arthur Kill on the northern shore of Staten Island, New York. Founded in the 1930s, it serves as a dumping ground for wrecked tugboats, barges, ferries and other vessels from all decades of the 20th century. Some of these boats have historic significance, including the submarine chaser USS PC-1264 — the first World War II U.S. Navy ship to have a predominantly African-American crew — and the New York City Fire Department fireboat Abram S. Hewitt, which served as the floating command post at the 1904 sinking of the passenger ferry PS General Slocum, a disaster that killed more than 1,000 people.
Washington Wastewaster Pools
45.574722°,-122.424028° - Nearmap
Aerobic digesters agitate wastewater at a sewage treatment plant in Camas, Washington. This process is designed to reduce the volume of sewage sludge in the water, making it suitable for subsequent use. After it has been treated, the water is discharged from the plant into the Columbia River.
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