Earlier this week, NASA released 2.95 million breathtaking 3D satellite images to the public. The Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) is said to have photographed approximately 99% of the Earth’s surface since being launched into space back in 1999.
Here are a few of our favorites:
and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team
Dawson, Yukon located in Canada’s north was a boom town back in 1898 when it’s population was approximately 40,000. Today only about 1,000 residents call this town on the Yukon River home, but it still booms each and every summer when 60,000 tourists arrive to explore this historic town.
and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team
This image displaying the Idaho/Montana border gives viewers a birds eye view of the affects logging operations can have on the landscape. Each 1 x 1 mile squares are harvested at different times, producing a pattern of varied timber density and re-growth stages.
This intriguing image was taken during active forest fires raging in British Columbia’s Okanagan Mountain fires. The active fires are highlighted in red from ASTER’s infrared bands. This fire caused the evacuation of nearly a third of Kelowna’s population.
and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team
A very cool image depicting the bend in the Missouri River that forms Lake Sharpe in central South Dakota. It’s believed that eventually the river will create a shortcut through the peninsula which should eventually sever Lake Sharpe from the river.
and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team
An archipelago in Hudson Bay in Canada, belonging to the territory of Nunavit, the Belcher Islands are part of over 1500 islands that comprise the archipelago.
and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team
Located within Katmai National Park in Alaska, the Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes is filled with ash flows from the 1912 eruption of Novarupta.
and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team
The Three Sisters volcanoes in the Cascade Mountains of Oregon are part of a line of 27 volcanoes stretching from British Columbia in Canada to northern California
and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team
This image depicts the Sisitna Glacier in the Alaskan Range and displays vegetation in shades of red, snow in white, and glacial ice in blue. Where the ice is covered by debris, the glacier appears brown.
