Mountains Gallery

Whole Earth (Blue Marble 2000)

Whole Earth. Composite satellite image of Earth centred on the Americas. This is Blue Marble 2000, one of the most detailed Earth images ever made. It was done to update the original "blue marble" images taken by Apollo astronauts. It is the result of the combination of data from three Earth-observing satellites. A GOES satellite took the overall Earth image, SeaWiFS gathered ocean colour data and the AVHRR instruments on POES satellites mapped the vegetation. Hurricane Linda, a huge spiral storm system, is at centre left. Relief features have been exaggerated by 50 times. The Moon (upper left) has been superimposed on the image, and is not to scale

© NASA/GSFC/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY

Discovery from Starboard quarter

Photographer: Reginald William Skelton (1872-1956). Expedition: British National Antarctic Expedition 1901-04 (Discovery). View of the starboard side of the ship Discovery, which is held fast in the pack ice. Snow covered mountains in background

© University of Cambridge

Ice, Mountains, Rigging, Sailing, Ship, Snow

Earth, topographic and bathymetric map

Earth, topographic and bathymetric map. This whole Earth map is centred on the Greenwich meridian, at zero degrees latitude. Highlands and lowlands of the continents are shown as ridges and flat areas, with Arctic and Antarctic ice in white. The seabed depth varies from shallow (light blue) on the continental shelves, to deep ocean basins (dark blue). Topographic and bathymetric data is usually gathered by using aerial and satellite imagery combined with radar and sonar mapping. The satellites in this case were NOAA's POES satellites

© PLANETARY VISIONS LTD/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY