Daily Overview

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.

Loktak Lake

24.549139°,93.841222° - Maxar Technologies

Loktak Lake is the largest freshwater lake in northeast India, covering 111 square miles (287 sq km) in Manipur state. The lake is famous for its phumdis — floating masses of vegetation, soil and organic matter that are unique to its waters. The largest of the phumdis is 15 square miles (40 sq km) in size and contains Keibul Lamjao National Park, the world’s only floating national park.

Puerto Caballas Shoreline

-14.918611°,-75.503056° - Maxar Technologies

Waves roll into shore at Puerto Caballas, Peru. This area is part of the San Fernando National Reserve, a 380-acre protected area along the Pacific Ocean that is home to more than 250 species of birds, 90 different kinds of fish and crustaceans, and many reptiles and mammals. To reach this natural wonder, tourists must use off-road vehicles to traverse massive desert sand dunes.

Hong Kong International Airport (HKG)

22.308047°,113.918480° - Maxar Technologies

Hong Kong International Airport is located on Chek Lap Kok, an island in Hong Kong’s western waters. It is the world’s busiest cargo gateway and also one of the busiest passenger airports on Earth, handling upwards of 65 million passengers a year. Terminal 1, seen here, measures 570,000 square meters (6.1 million square feet), making it the third largest passenger terminal in the world.

Port Vauban

43.586556°,7.125861° - Maxar Technologies

Massive yachts are docked in the stunning blue water of Port Vauban, a harbor located in Antibes on the French Riviera. The facility is the largest marina on the Mediterranean Sea in terms of total tonnage of the boats that are moored here.

Puerto Vallarta

20.640861°,-105.296744° - Maxar Technologies

Puerto Vallarta is a Mexican beach resort city situated on the Pacific Ocean. Because of the city’s popularity as a travel destination, more than half of its 221,000 residents work in a tourism-related industry. A tropical climate means the average temperature here is 78 degrees fahrenheit (26 celsius) over the course of a year.

San Cristóbal Volcano

12.703833°,-87.000778° - Maxar Technologies

San Cristóbal Volcano is the highest and one of the most active volcanoes in Nicaragua. Standing at 5,725 feet (1,745 m), it is located in the northwest corner of the country near the city of Chinandega. San Cristóbal has been consistently active since 1997, including an eruption on Christmas Day in 2012 that caused hundreds of nearby residents to evacuate.

Manheim Auto Auction Lot

40.140361°,-76.396770° - Nearmap

Vehicles await auction on a large lot in Manheim, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1945, this facility is the world’s largest wholesale auto auction, handling around 8 million vehicles per year at more than 100 locations worldwide. The lot seen in this Overview is approximately 500 acres (200 hectares) in size.

Washington, D.C. Tidal Basin

38.887333°,-77.039389° - Nearmap

Independence Avenue encircles a section of the Tidal Basin Reservoir in Washington, D.C. Originally named South B Street, this major roadway was constructed between 1791 and 1823 and passes by many of the city’s monuments, including the U.S. Capitol Building, Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial. In the spring, it is also a popular route for viewing Washington D.C.’s cherry blossoms, some of which can be seen in this Overview.

Naval Outlying Field Spencer

30.624667°,-87.139750° - Nearmap

Naval Outlying Field Spencer is a military airport roughly two miles northeast of Pace, Florida, in Santa Rosa County. Centered on 640 acres, its eight equally-sized runways form two overlapping squares: one with corners pointing North, South, East and West, and another that is rotated 45 degrees.

Budapest

47.518667°,19.054139° - Maxar Technologies

Budapest is the capital of and most populous city in Hungary, as well as one of the largest cities in the European Union. It is home to more than 1,750,000 people and the birthplace of Ernő Rubik, inventor of the Rubik’s Cube. The Danube River enters Budapest from the north and encircles several islands, including Margaret Island, which can be seen at the top of this Overview.

Aquatica Water Park

29.458417°,-98.698139° - Nearmap

Check out this Overview of Aquatica, a water park in San Antonio, Texas. Constructed in 2012, Aquatica boasts several water slides, pools, a 42,000-square-foot beach area, an aviary, and its signature “Stingray Falls,” a family raft ride that runs through an underground grotto full of stingrays and tropical fish.

Marblehead Boats

42.495346°,-70.848786° - Nearmap

Hundreds of boats take harbor in a bay next to Marblehead, Massachusetts, a coastal town roughly 16 miles (25km) north of Boston. With a population of about 20,000, Marblehead has roots in commercial fishing, whaling, and yachting. In fact, it is often referred to as the birthplace of the United States Navy, as many of its resident sailors played a pivotal role in the American Revolution.

Lop Nur Potash Evaporation Ponds

40.417972°,90.795250° - Maxar Technologies

The Lop Nur Potash Ponds are located in the Taklamakan Desert of northern China. Potash, a form of potassium salt, is a major nutrient for plant growth and a key ingredient in fertilizers. The bright colors seen in this Overview occur because the water is dyed blue to absorb more sunlight and heat, thereby reducing the amount of time it takes for water to evaporate and the potash to crystallize.

Juscelino Kubitschek Bridge

-15.823611°,-47.829444° - Maxar Technologies

The Juscelino Kubitschek Bridge is a steel and concrete structure that crosses Lake Paranoá in Brasília, Brazil. The main span has four supporting pillars submerged underwater, while the deck weight is supported by three 200-foot-tall (61 m) asymmetrical steel arches that crisscross diagonally over the bridge.

Oil platform

46.166667°,51.583333° - Maxar Technologies

Two boats pass through the sea walls surrounding an oil extraction platform in Kazakhstan’s zone of the Caspian Sea. This area is known as the Kashagan Field, an offshore oil field that is estimated to have a recoverable reserve around 13 billion barrels of crude oil. However, due to harsh conditions - specifically sea ice during the winter, yearly temperature variation from −35 to 40 °C (−31 to 104 °F), extremely shallow water, and high levels of hydrogen sulfide that eventually need to be removed from the extracted oil - many consider it to be one of the most challenging oil megaprojects in the world.

Umlazi Township

-29.948412°,30.878737° - Maxar Technologies

Houses swirl on the hills of Umlazi - a township in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. The present site of Umlazi was occupied by American missionaries in 1836 and only opened to black residents in 1965, many of whom moved there from Durban. The current population of the township is approximately 405,000.

Lake Tandou

-32.595085°,142.035856° - Maxar Technologies

This Overview shows approximately 22 miles of Lake Tandou, an innovative water conservation project in New South Wales, Australia. The lakebed is protected from flooding and uses irrigation canals (the thin green lines) to grow cotton, sunflowers, and grains.

Khalifa International Stadium

25.263664°,51.448078° - Maxar Technologies

Khalifa International Stadium is a massive sports complex in Doha, Qatar. The facility is currently undergoing a massive renovation and expansion in advance of the 2022 World Cup, which will be hosted by the Qataris. The blue structure adjacent to the stadium is Aspire Academy, a youth sports school.

Port of Rotterdam Dry Terminal

51.938843°,4.047934° - Maxar Technologies

The dry terminal at the Port of Rotterdam in the Netherlands is the busiest transshipment facility of its kind in Europe - moving primarily coal and iron ore. The massive vessels that dock here carry up to 380,000 tonnes of these minerals to power plants and blast-furnaces in Germany, France, Belgium, and other European countries.

Frankfurt Airport

50.033333°,8.570556° - Maxar Technologies

Frankfurt Airport is the busiest airport in Germany, averaging 1,365 flights per day and 65 million passengers per year. With more than 70,000 employees, the airport it is also the single largest workplace in the country.