Domingo, 18 of June of 2006

The Earth seen from the space, in real time, your writing-desk

Although it does not bear relation to the PDA, today wanted recomendaros a small program, very peculiar, that I take using some time: Desktop Earth. It is a gratuitous utility that is in charge to at heart show of the writing-desk of Windows (although the version for Mac it is on way) a photography of our planet, so what would be seen from the space at that same moment, in real time.

An example of how it would be seen in the writing-desk
An example of how it would be seen in the writing-desk

You will wonder yourselves it obtains how it, because of course there is no satellite that sends these photos continuously. Then it combines a few techniques, to secure a result than more acceptable:

  • Firstly it uses photographies to hi-res of the Earth seen from the space, that they have removed in the different months throughout the year. It is part of the well-known project Blue Marble (blue marble) of the NASA, where we can find photographies impressive of our earth, seizures throughout the years by its satellites.
  • The Earth seen in January
    The Earth seen in January

  • Also from this project it obtains an Earth photo seen at night, where the lights of the cities and other objects are only seen that produce artificial light. He is peculiar to compare the Earth seen at night by day and.
  • The Earth seen at night
    The Earth seen at night

  • Knowing the hour of the day, it is possible to be calculated what leaves from the Earth is illuminated and which no. In these two zones it applies the Earth texture by day or at night, and so it secures an image near which it would be seen then from a satellite.
  • And to make the normal loop, also it draws the cloud layer that there are then around our planet. For it uses an image that the project xplanet generates every three hours being based on the photos of the satellites GOES, Meteosat and GMS, that are compiled continuously in the Geostationary Satellite Imagery of the University of Dundee.

So with these three images, the program generates an Earth view very similar to which we would have we were contemplating if it from the space. In addition, the image is updated automatically in periods of time that we define, for example every 5 minutes.

Really, a program that allows to obtain a bottom us of spectacular screen. for example it turns out peculiar to see to me when it is arriving the day at the readers who you live in each part of the world. It makes think about the small thing that Internet has returned our planet.


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