A little bit about myself - my name is Jamie and I grew up just outside Chicago in a small suburb along Lake Michigan's north shore. Even though I've been living in Boston for the past five years, I still my consider myself a Midwest boy. I received my bachelor's degree in Journalism from Indiana University before finally settling outside of Boston in 2004.
Some of my fondest memories involve car trips into downtown Chicago, seeing that unmistakable Chicago skyline twinkle in the rays of the setting sun. The best feeling in the world is driving along Lake Shore Drive on a warm summer evening, windows open, seeing the city all lit up. Nesting alongside Lake Michigan, Lake Shore Drive is the best way to see the city from the road. With the skyscrapers and lakefront hotels on your right and the lake on your left, it's hard not to feel one with the metropolis.
Satellite photography of the earth has a tendency to put everything in perspective. Viewing the earth from above at night is no exception! NASA's Earth Observatory is a website that provides the public with access to thousands of satellite images of the planet we call home. While Earth Observatory's mainly focus is on the Earth’s climate and environmental changes, there's a cool feature feature called "Cities At Night: The View from Space." According to the article;
"NASA and NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) joined forces to present the first world map of the nighttime Earth using 9 months of data collected by the DMSP (Defense Meteorological Satellite Program) satellite from an altitude of 830 kilometers (1 kilometer is 0.62 miles) above Earth."
Now universally recognized, this “Night Lights” map allows people to see just how the world's people & cities are distributed. Take a look at a couple examples from the project below!
Above is a a portion of the map, showing the North & South America at night. The brightest areas of are the most urbanized, but not necessarily the most populated.
The above photo, taken in 2003, shows Chicago during the day, taken with a 50 mm lens. below you will see Chicago at night, taken with the same 50 mm lens. Very cool!
Lights out until next time! Thanks for reading!
1 comments:
Great article Jamie! I look forward to more.
Post a Comment