Satellite Imagery as Art

By Miss Cellania in Pictures on Jul 3, 2008 at 9:04 am

Satellites take pictures of the earth for mapping, weather, science, and security. Art is a low priority when you’ve spend this much money to launch the camera! But the earth is a beautiful place, and the pictures sometimes are works of art. See Environmental Graffiti’s 30 Most Incredible Abstract Satellite Images of Earth.

The images you see below were taken at the turn of the Millennium, when NASA’s scientists had a brilliant idea: to scan through 400,000 images taken by the Landsat 7 satellite and display only the most the most beautiful. A handful of the best were painstakingly chosen and then displayed at the Library of Congress in 2000.

Pictured are underwater sand dunes in the Bahamas. Link -Thanks, Tom!

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Nikolas Schiller
Jul 3rd, 2008 at 12:13 pm
My first maps that I created 4 years ago sampled these satellite images because they are in the public domain. You can view the modified satellite images I created on my “Maps of 2004” page. The original satellite images all have a timeless quality to them, but it would be nice if NASA released another batch into the public domain.
EP
Jul 3rd, 2008 at 5:46 pm
We always think in art as a relation between a person, the artist, and the work. Nature itself is an inspiring artistic spectacle.
Edie
Jul 3rd, 2008 at 9:47 pm
I thought you might be interested to know that these images come from the USGS website “Earth as Art.” http://earthasart.gsfc.nasa.gov/index.htm

I have a good friend who worked on the collection, and you can see his flickr stream with more images here: http://flickr.com/photos/remusshepherd/
Hilary Farlow
Nov 10th, 2008 at 3:22 pm
The deforestation in Bolivia is depressingly astounding.

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