Earth Snapshot Of The Day

The MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) sensor, aboard two satellites orbiting our planet at an altitude of 700 km, has been taking images of the Earth at 250 meter resolution since the end of 1999. The MODIS Image of the Day page is a gallery of interesting events in the past week observable from moderate Earth orbit. The current set of views includes an erupting volcano in Kamchatka, fires in Southern California, a dust storm in the Chinese desert, as well as a view of Japan.

For those who hearken for vast quantities of satellite imagery, and have bandwidth to match, the Global Land Cover Facility at the University of Maryland has the largest collection anywhere of Landsat satellite imagery available for free download. Their collection consists of 8,727 scenes at 30 meter resolution covering every land surface on Earth except the Arctic and Antarctic. But after a few downloads, one might end up needing one of these.