The Sharpest Ever Global Earth Map

Roland Piquepaille writes "The GLOBCOVER project, started by the European Space Agency (ESA), has a very simple goal. It will create the most detailed portrait of the Earth's land surface with a resolution three times sharper than any previous satellite map. The image acquisition will be done throughout 2005 and use the Medium Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MERIS) instrument of the Envisat environmental satellite. To create this sharp map, the GLOBCOVER project will analyze about 20 terabytes of data gathered by the European satellite. When it's completed, the map will have numerous uses, 'including plotting worldwide land use trends, studying natural and managed ecosystems and modelling climate change extent and impacts.'"

Comments

Re:vegetation

[TripMaster Monkey]

The fact is, there is more vegetation on the planet now than there was 100 years ago

I call bullshit.

State your references or admit you're pulling 'facts' out of your ass.

Re:vegetation

[starman97]

That number does not make a distinction between old-growth forest which is bio-diverse and mono-culture treefarms which have very limited habitat for anything but genetically-engineered fast growth pine trees.