The NASA Earth Observatory “Image of the Day” often posts some amazing images, such as some great images from the Gulf oil spill last April.
I love the way that NASA describes today’s image, shown below, as a “paved highways of clouds”. It’s a striking image, taken on January 24, that shows incredible clouds off the coast of the northeastern United States, while the clear skies above land uncover the freshly fallen snow.
Like many of their images, they provide a few different ways to view it. You can view it directly on their site, download a 6MB jpg or download a 97MB GeoTiff.
Of course, the best way to view great images like this is with Google Earth! I compressed their jpg down to slightly a more reasonable size and put it in this KML file
for you to use in Google Earth.NASA often releases great images for us to enjoy, and this is another fine example.
About Mickey Mellen
Mickey has been using Google Earth since it was released in 2005, and has created a variety of geo-related sites including Google Earth Hacks. He runs a web design firm in Marietta, GA, where he lives with his wife and two kids.
Back in the 60′s flying sailplanes we used these ‘cloud streets’ to thermal hundreds of kilometers to achieve our distance goals. Flights between Wakerie in South Australia and Benalla in Victoria before daylight faded were not uncommon.
We still use these “cloud streets” when hangliding etc , and yes vast distances can be covered when the conditions are right.
We still use these “cloyd streets ” when hangliding and vast distances can be covered when the conditions are right.