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.
52.443583°,4.895333° - Vantor
Peat ponds and polders form a unique landscape in the Twiske, a large recreation area and nature reserve in the northwest of the Netherlands. Polders are low-lying pieces of reclaimed land protected by dikes, and roughly 4,000 of them exist in the Netherlands. Located just north of Amsterdam, the Twiske is home to a wealth of reed and water birds, foxes, ermines, and other wildlife.
48.873778°,2.295000° - Vantor
The Arc de Triomphe is located at the center of 12 radiating avenues in Paris, France. Yesterday, millions took to these streets to celebrate France’s second FIFA World Cup victory (with a 4-2 final win over Croatia). Today, players and coaches will parade up the Champs-Elysees avenue, which passes diagonally through this Overview from bottom left to upper right.
31.583333°,130.650000° - Vantor
Sakurajima is an active stratovolcano and a former island in Kyushu, Japan. Lava flows from the volcano’s 1914 eruption connected it with the Osumi Peninsula, as shown in the bottom left of this Overview. Since 1955, Sakurajima has been erupting almost constantly, producing thousands of small explosions every year.
60.997556°,-45.010722° - Vantor
A frozen river is seen here in Kujalleq Municipality, Greenland. At 12,355 square miles (32,000 sq. km), Kujalleq is the smallest district in Greenland by area. Its coat of arms features a ram’s head, which symbolizes one of the area’s most important economic assets — sheep farming.
19.748556°,53.126000° - Vantor
Rub’ al Khali — or “The Empty Quarter” — is the largest sand desert in the world. It covers 251,000 square miles (650,000 sq. km) and includes parts of Saudi Arabia, Oman, Yemen, and the United Arab Emirates. In the center of the desert there are a number of raised, hardened formations that were once the sites of shallow lakes, thousands of years ago.
45.317611°,6.337389° - Vantor
On Thursday, cyclists racing in the Tour de France completed Stage 12 of the race, passing through the 18 hairpin turns of the Lacets de Montvernier in Montvernier, France. This spectacular climb is 2.1 miles long (3.4 km) and contains a switchback turn every 450 feet (150 m). Welsh cyclist Geraint Thomas, racing for Team Sky, won this stage in just under five hours and 20 minutes.
39.903861°,-75.142944° - Nearmap
Hundreds of vehicles are parked in a processing lot near the Port of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Since 2010, hundreds of thousands of Hyundai and Kia vehicles have arrived at “PhilaPort” — located on the Delaware River — aboard cargo ships from South Korea. After processing, these vehicles are delivered to dealerships across the country by truck and by rail.
19.175639°,-68.036056° - Vantor
Salt deposits marble the shoreline of Lake Coipasa in Bolivia’s Sabaya Province. At an elevation of nearly 12,000 feet (3,657 m), the lake is fed by the Lauca River, which drops dark volcanic sediment along its northwestern shore. That sediment, shown on the right side of this Overview, contrasts sharply with the light blue water and white salt crust.
34.197694°,-119.230056° - Nearmap
A plane flies over strawberry fields in Oxnard, California. From above, these fields have a silvery color because they are covered to protect berries from animal pests. During peak harvesting season — from April to June — more than 10 million pints of strawberries are shipped out of California every day, supplying the United States with 85% of its strawberries.
25.216667°,55.166667° - Axelspace
The World is a man-made archipelago in the rough shape of a world map, located in the Persian Gulf off the coast of Dubai, United Arab Emirates. It is made up of 300 islands ranging in size from 150,000 to 450,000 square feet (14,000-42,000 sq. meters) that are an average of 330 feet (100 m) apart. When construction of The World began in 2003, total development costs were estimated at roughly $10 billion.
38.894833°,-76.994500° - Nearmap
Capitol Hill is the largest and one of the oldest residential neighborhoods in Washington, D.C. With roughly 35,000 people in just under 2 square miles (5 sq. km), it is also one of the most densely populated communities in the District. Many of Capitol Hill’s residents live in rowhouses of different architectural variety, including 19th century manor houses, Federal townhouses, ornate Italianate bracketed houses, and others.
65.030000°,-16.750000° - Vantor
Askja is a caldera located in a remote part of the central highlands of Iceland. Calderas are large, cauldron-like hollows that form after the magma chamber of a volcano is evacuated and the earth above collapses into it. Askja is roughly 2.8 miles (4.5 km) in diameter and is accessible only a few months out of the year — in fact, the region in which it is located is so remote and otherworldly, it was used as a training site for NASA's Apollo program to prepare astronauts for lunar missions.
0.654829°,-122.622173° - NASA
This image of the Carr and Ferguson wildfires in California was taken aboard the International Space Station by European Space Agency astronaut Alexander Gerst on August 3rd. The Carr Fire, which was first reported July 23rd, has burned more than 261 square miles (676 sq. km) in Shasta and Trinity counties and is currently the sixth-most destructive fire in California’s history. The Ferguson Fire began July 13th and has since burned 147 square miles (382 sq. km) in the Sierra and Stanislaus National Forests. Both fires have been attributed to warming temperatures and unprecedented dryness.
-36.373331°,-69.550676° - Vantor
Reserva Provincial La Payunia, also known as Payún or Payén, is a nature preserve located in the southern part of Argentina's Mendoza Province. Spanning 1,737 square miles (4,500 sq. km), it is home to more than 70 animal species and a number of volcanic cones. Ash from these volcanoes forms a black terrain known as Pampas Negras, which can be seen spreading its way across this Overview.
-37.979446°,144.624354° - Nearmap
A biosolid storage area is seen at the Western Treatment Plant in Cocoroc, Australia. This facility treats half of the sewage produced in the nearby city of Melbourne and is nearly 26,000 acres in size — roughly equal to the total area of Disney World. Biosolids, which are the solid organic materials leftover from the sewage treatment process, are often recycled to be used in forestry, farming, energy production or other soil products.
44.109263°,-103.184094° - Nearmap
Thousands of vehicles are stored at a salvage yard in Rapid City, South Dakota, where they will be scrapped for usable parts and recycled back into raw materials. In the U.S. alone, between 12 and 15 million vehicles reach the end of their lives every year, making them the most-recycled consumer product in the nation. Currently, about 75% of all vehicle materials can be salvaged and recycled.
59.527778°,23.356389° - NASA
Last month, the Operational Land Imager (OLI) on Landsat 8 captured this amazing Overview of a swirling green phytoplankton bloom in the Baltic Sea. Blooms like this spread across the northern basins of the North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans every summer, often spanning hundreds and sometimes thousands of miles. Scientists believe these blooms to be cyanobacteria, or blue-green algae — an ancient marine bacteria that captures and stores solar energy through photosynthesis.
33.795750°,-84.444583° - Nearmap
Freight train cars, casting long shadows, are seen in at Inman Yard in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. The facility is operated by Norfolk Southern and serves as one of the major freight hubs on its network that extends for more than 36,000 miles in the United States.
26.251389°,-81.710250° - Nearmap
The Island Walk neighborhood in Naples, Florida, is home to slightly more than 3,000 people. Since many cities in the state of Florida contain master-planned communities — often built on top of waterways in the latter half of the twentieth century — a number of intricate designs like this one are visible from the Overview perspective.
35.790861°,114.156167° - Vantor
Solar panels cover the hillsides of Tumencun, a small township in China's Henan Province. In 2017, China accounted for more than half of the world's investment in solar energy, putting forth $86.5 billion of a $160.8 billion global total. With these funds, China added an estimated 53 gigawatts of new solar capacity — more than all other countries combined.