Category Archives: Eyes in the Sky

Archaeologist Sarah Parcak uses satellite imagery to find previously undiscovered sites of ancient human activities. She also uses such images to detect looting of known sites. She describes her techniques in the TED talk video below. See also the Gallery: Archaeological mysteries hidden in satellite images.

Parcak won the million dollar TED Prize for 2016:

She will use the prize to develop the online Global Xplorer site to involve citizen scientists in using satellite imagery to find new archaeological sites and to protect known ones:

I wish for us to discover the millions of unknown archaeological sites across the globe. By building an online citizen science platform and training a 21st century army of global explorers, we’ll find and protect the world’s hidden heritage, which contains clues to humankind’s collective resilience and creativity.

Eyes in the Sky, Living in Space

View of the Super Bowl stadium from the ISS

February 8, 2016 TopSpacer

Astronaut Scott Kelly on the Int. Space Station snapped this photo of Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California while the Super Bowl was underway: Space Station Flyover of Super Bowl 50 – NASA.

Scott Kelly on Twitter:

Got to see the #SuperBowl in person after all! But at 17,500MPH, it didn’t last long. #YearInSpace

(Larger image)

Eyes in the Sky

Videos and Images of the East Coast Blizzard of 2016

January 24, 2016 TopSpacer

Here’s a cool time-lapse video of satellite imagery showing the big snow storm over the east coast: NASA’s GEOS-5 provides a satellite view of historic winter storm – Global Modeling and Assimilation Office Research Site

This one is from NOAA:

Here’s a sat image of the blizzard during Saturday morning (Jan.23rd): 2016 Blizzard by Moonlight – NASA

A massive winter storm system pummeled the eastern United States in late January 2016, with two low-pressure systems merging into a potent nor’easter that dropped heavy snow from Virginia to New England. By late afternoon on Jan. 23, snowfall totals were approaching records in several states, and hurricane-force winds were battering the coastlines and leading to serious flooding. The storm was expected to continue through the morning of Jan. 24.

The Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) on the Suomi NPP satellite acquired this image of the storm system at 2:15 a.m. EST on Jan. 23. It was composed through the use of the VIIRS “day-night band,” which detects faint light signals such as city lights, moonlight, airglow, and auroras. In the image, the clouds are lit from above by the nearly full Moon and from below by the lights of the heavily populated East Coast. The city lights are blurred in places by cloud cover.