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One regular dose of Earth from above
Meteora
39.714167°,21.631111° - Maxar
Meteora is a unique rock formation and monastic site just outside the town of Kalabaka in central Greece. With an average height of 313 meters (1,027 feet), the enormous rock columns house 24 Eastern Orthodox monasteries, of which six remain active. Every year, thousands of tourists visit this UNESCO World Heritage Site, navigating staircases and pathways cut into the rock formations to reach the monasteries.
Colombo
6.934444°,79.842778° - Maxar
Colombo is the commercial capital and largest city of Sri Lanka, with more than 5.6 million living in its metro area. Located on the west coast of the island, it boasts the busiest port on the Indian Ocean, handling nearly 73 million tons of cargo in 2019. Just south of the port is the Colombo International Financial City, a special economic zone currently under construction on reclaimed land.
Tao-Rusyr Caldera
49.350000°,154.700000° - Planet
The Tao-Rusyr Caldera is a stratovolcano located on Onekotan Island, in Russia’s Far East. Roughly 7.5 kilometers (4.6 miles) wide, it contains the waters of Kol'tsevoe Lake and a large symmetrical cone, Krenitsyn Peak, which rises from the lake. Onekotan is part of the Kuril Islands, a volcanic archipelago and segment of the “Ring of Fire” — a path of tectonic activity that circles the Pacific Ocean.
Beijing National Stadium
39.991667°,116.390556° - Maxar
The 2022 Winter Olympics kicked off today with an Opening Ceremony at China’s Beijing National Stadium. The stadium’s impressive design consists of two independent structures: a red concrete seating bowl and an outer frame of interconnected steel, earning it the nickname “The Bird’s Nest.” It will also host the Closing Ceremony on February 20th, just as it did for the 2008 Summer Olympics—Beijing is the first city ever to host both seasons of the Olympics.
Valley of Mexico
19.433333°,-99.133333° - Planet
Mexico City is the capital and largest city in Mexico. With over 21.8 million residents, it is the most populous city in North America and the fifth largest on Earth. As seen in this Overview, the city is situated in the Valley of Mexico, a large highland plateau surrounded by numerous mountains and volcanoes.
Luuq
3.698056°,42.597222° - Maxar
Luuq, Somalia, is located in a horseshoe-shaped bend of the Jubba River. The town’s geographic position has had a great influence on its history and development, helping it to become one of Somalia’s larger inland market towns as early as the 15th century. Central Luuq is home to about 41,000 people, and the broader region has a population of roughly 185,000.
Alejandro Selkirk Island
-33.751111°,-80.783333° - Airbus Space
Alejandro Selkirk Island is the largest and most westerly island in Chile’s Juan Fernández Archipelago. Previously known as “Más Afuera,” it was renamed after 18th-century marooned sailor, Alexander Selkirk, who is thought to have inspired the title character in Daniel Defoe’s “Robinson Crusoe” novel. The island is densely wooded and mountainous, with tremendous coastal cliffs up to 1,000 meters (3,281 ft) high on its east coast.
Barcelona
41.383333°,2.183333° - Airbus Space
Barcelona is capital of Spain’s Catalonia region and second-most populous city, with a population of 1.6 million. Its cityscape follows a strict grid pattern of equally sized blocks, with broad streets that widen at octagonal intersections. This Overview shows much of Barcelona’s Eixample district, a bustling neighborhood with popular tourist sites including Plaça de Catalunya, Sagrada Familía, and Casa Milà.
Melbourne Park
-37.821667°,144.978333° - Nearmap
Melbourne Park in Melbourne, Australia, has been the home of the Australian Open tennis tournament since 1988. Held annually during the last two weeks of January, the tournament is the first of the four Grand Slam tennis events, preceding the French Open, Wimbledon and the US Open. Today, Ashleigh Barty claimed the women’s singles title over Danielle Collins, and tomorrow Rafael Nadal will face off against Daniil Medvedev in the men’s singles final.
Lucca
43.841667°,10.502778° - Maxar
Lucca is a city and comune in Tuscany, Italy. The city walls, constructed during the Renaissance era, have remained intact as the city expanded and modernized. As the walls lost their military importance, they became a pedestrian promenade that encircles the old town, although they were used for a number of years in the 20th century as a track for racing cars.
Aden
12.800000°,45.033333° - Airbus
Aden is the temporary capital of Yemen and one of the country’s most populous cities, with about 800,000 residents. It’s natural harbor lies in the crater of a dormant volcano, which now forms a peninsula joined to the mainland by a low isthmus. The city is situated on the eponymous Gulf of Aden, near the eastern approach to the Red Sea.
Miami Beach Algae Bloom
25.786111°,-80.127306° - Nearmap
This juxtapose shows a before and after of the algae blooms that overtook the waters surrounding Miami, Florida, forcing the closure of six beaches in 2019. According to the recently released World Ocean Assessment, algae blooms such as these are among the leading drivers of dead zones in the ocean (areas where aquatic life cannot survive because the oxygen levels are too low). The assessment also reveals the number of “dead zones” in the ocean has increased by nearly double in the past decade.
Central Park in Fall
40.782222°,-73.965278° - Nearmap
Central Park in New York City spans 843 acres (341 hectares), which is 6 percent of the island of Manhattan. Seen here during the fall, the park contains numerous tennis courts and baseball fields, an ice-skating rink, and a swimming pool. Central Park gets more than 38 million visitors annually, making it the most visited urban park in the United States.
Russian Military at Ukraine Border
54.606136°,33.161942° - Maxar
The buildup of Russian military forces along the border with Ukraine is visible in this image from January 19, 2022. Military vehicles, battle group tents, and other equipment has been stockpiled in Yelnya, Russia, about 257 km from Ukraine. Roughly 100,000 Russian troops have been deployed to various locations along the border, and Western nations have threatened sanctions and potential deployments of their own if the situation continues to escalate.
Îlots des Apôtres
-45.966667°,50.450000° - Airbus Space
The Îlots des Apôtres are a group of small and uninhabited islands in the Indian Ocean. Their total area is about two square kilometers, 90% of which belongs to Île Grande and Île Petite — the two largest islands seen here. In 1875, when the British ship “Strathmore” wrecked in the vicinity, 44 passengers survived six months on Île Grande before being rescued by another ship.
San Francisco Bay Container Ship
37.767035°,-122.417378° - Nearmap
A container ship is moored in San Francisco Bay, located in between the cities of San Francisco and Oakland in California, USA. Recently, the Port of Oakland announced that ships waiting for docking space will no longer queue inside the Bay, but instead will wait 50 miles offshore until they receive an assigned docking time. This effectively creates a “Safety and Air Quality Area” in order to improve air quality with decreased emissions from moored ships and also increases maritime safety with reduced boat traffic in the Bay.
Volcanic Ash Covers Tonga
-21.144712°,-175.198228° - Maxar
A thick layer of ash blanketed the island nation of Tonga following the eruption of the Hunga Tonga undersea volcano on Saturday. This Overview shows a neighborhood in the capital city of Nuku’alofa on January 18, 2022, just a few days after the eruption. Experts believe the event, which set off a sonic boom heard as far away as Alaska, was the largest volcanic eruption in more than 30 years.
Ilulissat
69.216667°,-51.100000° - Maxar
Ilulissat, presented by Lindblad Expeditions, is a small town on the western coast of Greenland. The name of the town fittingly means “icebergs” in Kalaallisut, the local language, and its colorful houses are nestled into a pocket on the rocky coastline, near the mighty Ilulissat Glacier. This massive stretch of ice flows down from the Greenland Ice Sheet, releasing icebergs of up to a kilometer in height into the ocean. Here the veteran Lindblad Expedition bridge teams weave their nimble iceships through the bergs, routinely spotting seals and even humpback whales on their approach to the town.
I Have a Dream Speech
38.889278°,-77.050139° - Library of Congress
On August 28, 1963, more than 250,000 civil rights supporters gathered in Washington, D.C. to hear Martin Luther King Jr.’s famous “I Have a Dream” speech. Listeners stretched from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial all the way to the Washington Monument, a distance of nearly one mile (1.3 km). Today—the third Monday of January—marks Martin Luther King Jr. Day in America, a day to remember his life and contributions to the Civil Rights Movement.
Manhattan Island
40.783333°,-73.966667° - Maxar
Manhattan, seen at center, is the urban core of the New York metropolitan area. With a land area of roughly 23 square miles (59 square kilometers) and about 1.6 million residents, it is the most densely populated borough in New York City. While this Overview might at first appear to be “upside down,” this shot captures the correct angle of the city’s skyscrapers.
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