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One regular dose of Earth from above
Center-pivot irrigation
30.089890°,38.271807° - Maxar Technologies
Center pivot irrigation is used throughout the Wadi As-Sirhan Basin of Saudi Arabia. Water is mined from depths as great as one kilometer (~3,000 ft), pumped to the surface, and evenly distributed by sprinklers that rotate 360 degrees. Spurred by a government effort to strengthen its agriculture sector, cultivated land in Saudi Arabia grew from 400,000 acres in 1976 to more than 8 million acres by 1993. For a sense of scale, the total area shown in this Overview is approximately fifty square miles (32,000 acres).
Salt Ponds
37.495364°,-122.160180° - Maxar Technologies
A recent figure estimates that 80% of the San Francisco Bay wetlands area - approximately 16,500 acres - have been developed for salt mining. The ponds get their particular, vibrant colors from the micro-algae that live there and the species' tolerance to salinity. Areas that have a bright red hue are caused by the algae Dunaliella, which thrives in water with extremely high salt content. For a sense of scale, this Overview shows approximately one half of a square mile.
San Alfonso del Mar
-33.350000°,-71.653333° - Maxar Technologies
The swimming pool at the San Alfonso del Mar Resort in Algarrobo, Chile is the largest in the world. The pool is more than one thousand meters long (3,323 ft) and contains approximately 250 million liters (66 million gallons) of water! The resort pays $4 million dollars each year to maintain the pool.
TAPO Bus Terminal
19.430011°,-99.112300° - Maxar Technologies
To continue my selection of favorite Overviews from 2015, I’m excited to repost this one of the Terminal de Autobuses de Pasajeros de Oriente - a major bus terminal in Mexico City, Mexico. Commonly known as TAPO, the dome-covered structure accommodates more than 10,000 passengers per day traveling to fourteen states throughout the country.
Davis-Monthan Air Force Base
32.171449°,-110.848683° - Maxar Technologies
The largest aircraft storage and preservation facility in the world is located at Davis–Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson, Arizona. The facility - run by the 309th Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group - contains more than 4,400 retired American military and government aircraft.
Cadiz Ranch
34.494638°,-115.500469° - Maxar Technologies
Cadiz Ranch in Essex, California is located in the middle of the Mojave Desert. The organic farm grows lemons, table grapes (dried and turned into raisins) and squash on more than 300 acres of irrigated desert. This is made possible by seven wells that pump 2,000 gallons of water per minute at all times from an underground aquifer - a layer of water-bearing permeable rock from which water can be extracted.
Kansai International Airport (KIX)
-32.016664°,69.955090° - Maxar Technologies
Kansai International Airport is located on an artificial island in the middle of Osaka Bay, Japan. To create the island, a 30 meter (98-foot) layer of earth was created on top of the seafloor with 21 million cubic meters of landfill. The material was excavated from three separate mountains. As of 2008, the total cost of Kansai Airport was $20 billion USD, including land reclamation that has been necessary to prevent its continued sinkage (7.1 centimeters per year as of 2008) into the bay.
Louvre Museum
48.860854°,2.335812° - Maxar Technologies
A river cruise passes by the Louvre Museum in Paris, France. Located on the Seine River, the Louvre is the world’s most visited museum, receiving more than nine million visitors per year. The entrance to the museum, seen at the top and center of this Overview is a glass and metal pyramid, designed by architect I.M. Pei. Visitors enter through the pyramid, descend into the spacious lobby, and then re-ascend into the wings of the museum.
Las Vegas at night
36.175000°,-115.136389° - NASA
The glowing lights of Las Vegas, Nevada are captured here from the International Space Station. Since the city is entirely surrounded by desert, its brightly lit grid of streets starkly contrasts the dark, undeveloped area on its outskirts. You’ll also notice the Las Vegas Strip - the city’s central avenue that is seen at the middle of this Overview. This particular area is one of the brightest spots on Earth due to the concentration of lights emanating from the hotels and casinos along the road.
Seaweed Farms
-8.695228°,115.441324° - Maxar Technologies
Seaweed farms on Nusa Lembongan – a small island located southeast of Bali, Indonesia – have an average harvest of 50,000 pounds per month. Once the seaweed is extracted from the water, it is dried by the sun for 3-7 days, depending on the season.
Residential Development
31.103526°,-97.769887° - Maxar Technologies
Residential homes in Killeen, Texas. The town’s population grew from 86,911 to more than 127,000 in the decade between the 2000 and 2010 censuses, making it one of the fastest growing areas in the United States.
The Great Pyramids of Giza
29.976111°,31.132778° - Maxar Technologies
The Great Pyramids of Giza are located on the outskirts of Cairo, Egypt. Dating back to 2580 BC, the Great Pyramid, the largest structure at the site, is the oldest of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient world and the only one to remain largely intact. With an estimated 2,300,000 stone blocks weighing from 2 to 30 tons each, the 481 foot pyramid was the tallest structure in the world for more than 3,800 years.
Beach Umbrellas
43.917693°,12.913097° - Maxar Technologies
Umbrellas dot the beaches of Pesaro, Italy. The town is located on the Adriatic Sea and maintains an average temperature of 27° C (80.6° F) during the summer months.
Dendritic drainage systems
30.327274°,48.829255° - Maxar Technologies
A dendritic drainage pattern is seen around the Shadegan Lagoon by Musa Bay in Iran. Dendritic literally means branched, as in resembling the pattern of a tree. This shape develops when streams move across relatively flat and uniform rock or over a surface that resists erosion.
Industrial buildings
33.740293°,-118.031207° - Maxar Technologies
Industrial buildings cover approximately one square mile in Westminster, a city in the Los Angeles metropolitan area of California, USA. The complex includes numerous warehouses, a roller skating rink, and multiple engineering facilities.
Cloverleaf interchange
25.174690°,51.326337° - Maxar Technologies
A cloverleaf interchange is constructed on the outskirts of Doha, Qatar. The objective of a cloverleaf is to allow two highways to cross without the need to stop traffic.
Denver International Airport
39.861667°,-104.673056° - Maxar Technologies
Denver International Airport in Colorado covers more than 33,000 acres (52 square miles), making it is the largest airport in the United States by total land area. The facility is the 18th-busiest airport in the world and the 6th busiest in the United States by passenger traffic with more than 54 million passengers.
Grand Canyon
36.100000°,-112.100000° - Maxar Technologies
The Grand Canyon is a steep-sided canyon carved by the Colorado River in the state of Arizona in the United States. The geological wonder is 277 miles (446 km) long, up to 18 miles (29 km) wide, and attains a depth of 6,093 feet (1,857 meters) at it’s deepest point. Recent studies suggest that the river established its course through the area roughly 5 or 6 million years ago and has continuously expanded the size of the canyon and exposed nearly two billion years of Earth's geological history since then.
Selkirk Yard
42.554722°,-73.837222° - Maxar Technologies
Selkirk Yard is a freight railroad yard located eight miles south of Albany, New York that serves as a gateway to points east of the Hudson River, including New York City. Using computerized controls, the yard can process more than 3,200 cars per day.
Port Everglades
26.087166°,-80.119158° - Maxar Technologies
Massive cruise ships are anchored at Port Everglades in Broward County, Florida, United States. The facility is the third busiest cruise port in the world with 3.6 million passengers passing through each year. In total, the worldwide cruising industry accounts for $29.4 billion USD with more than 19 million passengers traveling each year.
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