Earth From Miles Up (PHOTOS)

By: By Laura Dattaro

Published: November 5,2013

 

 

 

 

 

There are more than 1,000 satellites orbiting Earth, collecting data, helping you find your way and taking pictures of the planet that launched them. In his new book Earth From Space (Abrams Books), photographer and environmentalist Yann Arthus-Bertrand has collected some of the best satellite images around and laid them out in a gorgeous tome that just begs to top a coffee table.
But the book is not just pretty pictures. Arthus-Bertrand uses captions and interviews with experts to show how satellite images can help us keep an eye on global issues ranging from food supply to movement of oil spills to prison camps that North Korea tries to keep secret. “Tools such as Google Earth are embarrassing for North Korean authorities, who deny the existence of prison camps,” Amnesty International’s Christoph Koettl says in one of the book’s interviews. “Thanks to these images, more and more people around the world are aware of this reality.”
NASA and European space technology company Astrium provided the images. Click through the slideshow above to see 10 of the best.
MORE: Earth at Night

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NASA

Early on August 29, 2012, the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) on the Suomi-NPP satellite captured this nighttime view of Hurricane Isaac and the cities near the Gulf Coast of the United States. The clouds were lit by moonlight. (Courtesy: NASA)