World



We’ve all heard of something being “written in the stars”, but what about written on the Earth? A new collection of images compiles a complete set of the Roman alphabet captured in images from NASA satellites and astronaut photography.

"On December 25, 2000, by the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) on NASA’s Terra satellite captured this false-color image of the Ugab River in Namibia."

Y: “On December 25, 2000, by the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) on NASA’s Terra satellite captured this false-color image of the Ugab River in Namibia.” Image by NASA

A NASA staffer, Adam Voiland, posted the results of his search for letters found in satellite images on the organization’s Earth Observatory website, which hosts galleries of images that are available to the public.

"The Operational Land Imager (OLI) on Landsat 8 acquired this false-color image of valleys and snow-covered mountain ranges in southeastern Tibet on August 4, 2014. Firn is a granular type of snow often found on the surface of a glacier before it has been compressed into ice."

F: “The Operational Land Imager (OLI) on Landsat 8 acquired this false-color image of valleys and snow-covered mountain ranges in southeastern Tibet on August 4, 2014. Firn is a granular type of snow often found on the surface of a glacier before it has been compressed into ice.” Image by NASA

The project started a few years ago, writes Voiland, as he was working on a story about wildfires and noticed the shape of a letter V in the smoke above Canada. He began to wonder how many other letters appeared in satellite images.

"On November 29, 2004, the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) on NASA’s Terra satellite acquired this image of Lonar Crater in India. Shocked quartz—minerals with an unusual structure that can only form under intense pressure—offers a clue that the lake was formed by a large meteorite."

Q: “On November 29, 2004, the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) on NASA’s Terra satellite acquired this image of Lonar Crater in India. Shocked quartz—minerals with an unusual structure that can only form under intense pressure—offers a clue that the lake was formed by a large meteorite.” Image by NASA

In July 2012, he wrote a post explaining that he thought it would be fun to compile a gallery and asked anyone who noticed a letter in a satellite image to send the information along.

"On January 13, 2009, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite captured this image of dust blowing over the Red Sea."

W: “On January 13, 2009, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite captured this image of dust blowing over the Red Sea.” Image by NASA

Now, after three years, the whimsical typeface covers the whole Roman alphabet and much of the globe. The images include artificial islands in Bahrain, snow-covered mountains in Tibet, meteor craters in Mauritania, and many more interesting earth features.

"On July 11, 2012, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite captured this image of wildfire smoke over Canada."

Z: “On July 11, 2012, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite captured this image of wildfire smoke over Canada.” Image by NASA

Some of the letters were contained in temporary features like clouds and phytoplankton blooms. Some letters, like O, were very easy to find, while others like A, B, and R “were maddeningly difficult” to locate, writes Voiland.

"On February 10, 2007, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite captured this image of the Andaman Islands. The thin, bright rings surrounding several of the islands are coral reefs that were lifted up by a massive earthquake near Sumatra in 2004."

I: “On February 10, 2007, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite captured this image of the Andaman Islands. The thin, bright rings surrounding several of the islands are coral reefs that were lifted up by a massive earthquake near Sumatra in 2004.” Image by NASA

While the alphabet has now been posted, Voiland is still open to people finding better examples as they comb through NASA images.

"On March 4, 2009, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on the Terra satellite captured this image of ship tracks over the Pacific. Ship emissions contain small particles that cause the clouds to form."

N: “On March 4, 2009, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on the Terra satellite captured this image of ship tracks over the Pacific. Ship emissions contain small particles that cause the clouds to form.” Image by NASA

To add interest, the images contain captions with information about their location, so readers can learn more about the things they depict.

To see the entire alphabet and learn more about the images Voiland collected, visit NASA’s Earth Observatory website here.