Earth As Art

by Lawrence Friedl, Karen Yuen

In 1960, the United States put its first Earth-observing environmental satellite into orbit around the planet. Over the decades, these satellites have provided invaluable information, and the vantage point of space has provided new perspectives on Earth. This book celebrates Earth’s aesthetic beauty in the patterns, shapes, colors, and textures of the land, oceans, ice, and atmosphere. The book features 75 stunning images of Earth from the Terra, Landsat 5, Landsat 7, EO-1, and Aqua satellites. Sensors on these satellites can measure light outside of the visible range, so the images show more than what is visible to the naked eye. The images are intended for viewing enjoyment rather than scientific interpretation. The beauty of Earth is clear, and the artistry ranges from the surreal to the sublime.

Earth as art—enjoy the gallery.

NASA Science Mission Directorate
Earth Science Division

Genres: Photography, Nonfiction

172 pages, ebook

First published September 17, 2012

Reviews

[Paulo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Patterns, shapes, colors... land, oceans, atmosphere... mountains, rivers, ice, sand... the book shows astonishing and amazing pictures of Earth from space (mainly from Terra and Landstat satellites).

Every picture has a brief preface, but I miss some more text explaining what we see in images. For profane people like me it's not easy to identify everything we see.

A gallery to enjoy watching, to stare with awe, it exhibits the beauty of our planet.

[Jonathan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Has some amazing images but I found it hard to stay interested reading all of the text. I didn’t absorb much of it at all, unlike the Earth’s Lights and other space books I have read from NASA. Still cool to check out though!

[Sara · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book does contain some truly stunning images and really interesting information about the features of our planet the photos display. However, I wish I knew more about what the satellites were seeing when they recorded these images. In a brief afterword it is mentioned that the satellites can "see" beyond the narrow band of light visible to the human eye, and thus the satellite images are not necessarily what we would see if we were to look down at Earth from space. This much is obvious as you look through the images. But why does that mean that vegetation is sometimes red, for example? What is the satellite registering that causes it to at times render differing colors by altitude? When an image appears to have been recorded using the visible spectrum, is that actually the case or does whatever is being recorded simply happen to translate into colors that might appear "natural"? I found these questions rather distracting as I was looking through the book.

[Scott Whitney · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful images and an explanation to go with them. This book (free online) has great images I wish I could get for my computer desktop.

[Tez · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not my kind of art. I prefer galaxies and nebulas, not satellite images of Earth. I'm a snob ;-)

[Jamie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Stunning images and interesting concept, but I wish there was more information.