Note: The 'Land on the Moon' feature in Google Earth is pretty much awesome.
Astronaut Kathy Sullivan was the first American woman to walk in space. She wrote an introduction to the book "Looking At Earth", a project produced by the National Air and Space Museum at the Smithsonian. I found this gorgeous book up in my attic yesterday and have become immersed in its satellite imagery, aerial photograpy, rich scientific language, and cultural insights which quench my desire for new reading material (while fueling my fondness of Google Earth-eske images and all things geophysics). Here is an excerpt from Sullivan's introduction.
"...Imagine soaring over the planet at an altitude of several hundred miles, traveling at a speed of nearly 18,000 miles an hour, yet feeling that you are floating in a great airship. Every moment presents you with a view that draws out myriad streams of thought, creating a wonderful weave of surprise and remembrance, curiosity and childlike delight. Colors you've never imagined, shapes that are strikingly like the maps you've seen so often before, places you've lived in, visited, or read about - they all scroll below at a seemingly majestic, yet, in actuality, startlingly fast pace.... at night, the most profuse array of stars you have ever seen fills your view toward the horizon. Every orbit gives you the treat of seeing constellations from another hemisphere - a rarity for most Earth-bound people. The thin, diffusely glowing band that marks the Earth's air-glow layer is plainly visible if the Moon is not too full. The air-glow curves away toward the pole, where it merges with the spectacular green arcs of the aurora. The arcs undulate in slow, grand waves, as if they were gigantic draperies stirred by a faint gbreeze. The more active arcs are higher and brighter, with rays that extend from beneath you in the atmosphere to well above the spacecraft's altitute..."
I especially enjoy her description of the Northern Lights, as well as her concluding statements about how important it is to educate and motivate ourselves to develop a deeper interest in our planet. To broaden our understanding of not only the issues we're faced with currently, but also the science of our natural environment, will enrich our lives and (in turn) the land we live on. And perhaps this inspired awareness will rouse in us what she calls "planetary patriotism".
Here is one of my favorite satellite images which was created after the book was published. To read about how this image was made, go to NASA's Earth Observatory website.
